The Valiance
by Dawn of Time
Summary: Flash Squad, finally on a mission of their own! Traveling to a remote planet on the Outer Rim, they must shut down a Separatist facility to prepare for the upcoming invasion. Will these four clones complete their assignment and survive to tell the tale?
1. Beginnings

_Dawn of Time: I'm back! With a new story too :) Anyways, this is my nanowrimo that I just wrote in November, freshly edited and everything. If you see any errors, please tell me. Enjoy!_

**Disclaimer: I, sadly, don't own Star Wars. Please apply this to the rest of the story.**

**Chapter 1: Beginnings**

The pitter-patter of rain could be heard outside the sterile white walls of Kamino's buildings. Kamino, the water planet of endless thunderstorms with three days of summer, is where all clones are born. Each clone's dream is one of glory: going off into battle and winning victories for the Republic. Every clone wants to be sent out to fight the war on foreign systems. Many of the planets are located in the Outer Rim, where the Separatist army constantly rears its ugly head.

_Number: CT-23-5072_

_Designation Planet: Dosuun_

_Company: 501st Extended Unit_

"CT-23-5072, report for duty at the main hanger." The whispery voice of a Kaminoan official filtered into the clone's comlink. He immediately grabbed the pager and his inspection ready gear pack. Today was the day he had dreamed of, CT-23-5072 was starting his own journey on a grand starship. His orders were to meet with General Skywalker and discuss the mission of the 501st Extended Unit.

CT-23-5072 hurried down the circular hallways of the building, setting into a brisk job. As the number of feet to the main hanger grew smaller, his heart rate sped up. Before, he was ecstatic about being assigned to a squad, but now CT-23-5072 realized he was downright nervous. That meant a whole new batch of brothers to bond with. Civilians might argue all clones are the same; hence the term "clones". In most circumstances, that wasn't the case. Each brother knew as well as the next that although all clone physically appeared the same, their minds and personalities were like two opposite sides of a credit chip.

CT-23-5072 straightened his back to attention position and as calmly as he could, pressed the hanger door security pad. The airtight lock opened with a quiet _swoosh_. CT-23-5072 scanned the landing area for abnormalities with the eye of an expert. After confirming that nothing was out of the ordinary, he strode purposefully toward the imposing figure of General Skywalker.

"General Skywalker, sir. Reporting for duty, sir." CT-23-5072 informed crisply. The correct greeting had been flash trained into his memory.

"At ease, trooper." The clone relaxed into parade rest and waited for General Skywalker to continue. "What's your designation?"

"CT-23-5072, sir." CT-23-5072 suddenly remembered how Jedi often preferred to use names for the clones under their command. "You can call me Shift, sir, if you'd like." He added. General Skywalker smiled, and Shift knew he had not been out of line to offer his nickname to his commanding officer.

"Alright, Shift it is. So, do you know your assignment?" Shift tilted his head. Of course he knew his assignment.

"Yes, sir. The 501st Extended Unit is going to board a small vessel, then exit the hangar of the Resolute and pilot the ship to the planet Dosuun. When we reach Dosuun, we will take over a small droid communications base and send a signal to the Resolute for a backup to take out at Separatist droid factory then call for an extraction, sir." Shift could recite this mission from memory, not only was it his duty but he was very excited for his first assignment.

"Correct, Shift. I'll let you be to get united with your new squad. They are waiting in the transfer ship that will bring you aboard the Resolute." Shift saluted General Skywalker and strode toward the freighter that looked out of place among the sleek white Kaminoan vessels.

The ship itself wasn't bad. It wasn't in mint condition, but it was relatively reliable looking. There were a few dents and dings that indicated the vessel had been through a few scrapes. Shift could tell from a scan with his HUD that all the main functions were operating smoothly. Shift felt a little guilty, thinking about how he doubted his new brothers for not checking the ship properly. They had probably scanned it too; it was part of their basic training.

As Shift walked up the ramp he could hear voices identical to his speaking. That would be his new brothers. He navigated to the main room rather easily; the ship was well planned out. At the single table in the middle of the space sat two brothers. One was in black armor with light green stripes, and the other was in standard white armor that had light blue stripes on it. Shift reflected on his own armor, it was white with red stripes.

The clone in the blue striped armor turned and waved at him first. The second one started to stand up, but Shift waved him down. Shift walked around the circular table and took a seat next to the black armored clone. The other clones had their helmets off. Shift didn't want to take his off; he preferred his secrets to be his own.

"I'm Trill." The blue-striped clone introduced himself. The one in black snickered, as if remembering something funny. Shift glanced toward him curiously. Trill pointed toward to laughing clone. "He's Gidgit. Don't worry, he's just remembering that if he doesn't_ shut up_ right now, he's going to get smacked." Now Shift was really confused.

"My name's Shift. I think I'm going to have to ask you to explain that one."

"Yeah, Gidgit, why don't you explain it?" Trill shot an annoyed look toward Gidgit who burst out laughing again.

"Oh come on, you have to admit it was pretty funny." Gidgit slapped Trill on the back lightly. Trill still looked annoyed. "Shift, get this, the word trill is a type of singing, right? Well, Trill can't sing! I even got him to try." Gidgit doubled over chucking again. "It's hilarious!"

Shift glanced at Trill and saw he was smiling too. "I guess it was pretty funny, want an encore?" Trill put his hand to his chest and promptly started belting out a rhyme they had learned as cadets. Gidgit covered his ears and protested.

"No no no no no no no! My ears can't handle anymore of your _beautiful_ voice, I still need to be able to hear when the droids start shooting at me." Shift retreated to the helm, smiling at the quibble between the two fast friends.

At the bridge of the vessel sat another clone. Sergeant Kies was the supervisor for the mission of the 501st Extended Unit to Dosuun. He was designated to guide the newly formed squad through their first task. Shift was grateful that they would have someone to help them out of any tight spots they might get into as shinies.

Shift counted in his head, there were three troopers on board other than him. That meant they were still waiting for another to show up. As if on cue, Shift heard the steps of another trooper echoing up the docking ramp. From the entrance came a clone in white armor with black stripes. On his helmet was a design made up of two arrows facing the opposite direction of each other. The front left facing arrow was red, the right facing arrow was grey and was slightly behind the red one like a switched shadow.

Trying to be the confident brave clone soldier Shift was taught to be, he offered his hand out to the other brother. The clone took it and Shift introduced himself. "Hey, I'm Shift." The other trooper nodded and gripped his hand.

"Rev, that's short for Reverse. Nice to meet you, _vod_." Rev spoke gruffly. Shift nodded to himself noting that Rev's reversed arrows on his helmet reflected his name. He also noted that Rev knew a bit of Mando'a, for '_vod_' meant brother. "Where are the others?"

"Sergeant Kies is at the helm, the other two jokesters are in the main room. Be careful, they have an awful sense of humor." Both troopers looked at each other's helmeted faces and shared a moment of exasperation. Shift felt reassured, he knew he would get along with his new squad no matter how ridiculous they acted. Shift lead Rev into the main room and they both stopped short at the looks Trill and Gidgit were giving them.

Trill studied Rev's armor patterns and made a pointed look to all the different colors on their unit's armor. He made a fake thoughtful expression and turned back to Gidgit. "I have an idea, we should be Color Squad." To his credit, Gidgit was able to keep a straight face for a few seconds before succumbing to laughter.

"No way, I would feel ashamed to show my face in public!" Gidgit exclaimed loudly.

"I have to agree with you on this one, Gidgit." Shift replied. "Guys, this is Rev. Rev this is Trill and Gidgit." When he mentioned the former, Shift pointed to the clone in the blue striped armor. When he said the latter, he pointed to the uniquely black and green armor of Gidgit. Rev nodded a greeting to both.

"Well, now that we're all together, I think our first team activity should be to name our squad. I don't want to be called the 501st Extended Unit forever." Trill remarked.

"And I don't want to be referred to as the Color Squad either." Gidgit bickered. Then the two clones started up a heated argument about possible squad titles. Each was more ridiculous than the last.

"These two are going to be hard ones to manage." Shift jerked his thumb toward the brothers. Rev removed his helmet and stroked his chin thoughtfully.

"How about Flash-Bang Squad? We're like a Flash-Bang; no droid will know what hit them after we roll through." Rev offered. Although Shift agreed with the second part, he didn't want to be named Flash-Bang Squad.

"I'd rather not be named after an EMP grenade. How about just Flash Squad?" Shift compromised. Each of the clones glanced at each other in agreement. Flash Squad sounded much more refined than Flash-Bang Squad or Color Squad.

"Flash Squad it is." Shift announced loudly. The clones all let out a cheer. They were already starting to feel and act like a close knit group of brothers. Here comes Flash Squad, and no one will know what hit them.

_DOT: Thanks for reading! Please review, I promise the chapters will get longer after this. I'm thinking of updating every Monday and Thursday, if that's good._


	2. Bucket of Bolts

_DOT: Okay, another shorter chapter. You have to lay down the basics, right? Thanks to all who reviewed._

**Chapter 2: Bucket-of-Bolts**

Flash Squad was en route to Dosuun aboard the Resolute. Their little transport ship had successfully docked in the Republic attack cruiser and as soon as the clones had been passed on the starship, it took off. Admiral Yularen ran a tight ship and kept everything neat and on schedule. He cared about completing his work correctly, so as to be expected, the clones found him up in the control room setting hyperspace coordinates and ensuring that there would be a smooth flight.

Protocol demanded the clones meet with their superiors and see where they might be of service. Flash Squad had dropped their gear packs in the temporary bunkroom, which had been assigned for their use while they were aboard, and left to greet the renowned admiral.

"Sir, Flash Squad at your service, sir." Shift said as a way of announcing their presence. He really wanted to make a good impression to everybody. The Admiral turned around and the group of clones eagerly observed his appearance like the shinies they were. Wullf Yularen was a few inches shorted than the troopers, and his brown hair was graying at the temples. His bright blue eyes flashed in recognition as he saw the new squad.

"You must be the 501st Extended Unit for our military strike?"

"Sir, yes sir." They all replied in unison. Gidgit shifted a little bit at the decidedly "old" name of their squad. Admiral Yularen recognized the fidgeting as the nervous energy of a trooper that wasn't sure if it was his place to correct a commanding officer. He gestured out with his hand to allow the clone to correct him with out causing the clone any embarrassment.

"Sir, we respectfully would like to be called Flash Squad sir." The clone in black armor replied softly. Admiral Yularen inclined his head.

"Very well then." He glanced across the command center and caught the gaze of one of his clone pilots. The clone checked a clipboard that was packed with flimsies covered in writing and shook his head, and Wullf Yularen completed the silent conversation by turning back to the squad before him. "I am afraid we have nothing here for you to do, we are just waiting to come out of hyperspace and unload your ship at the drop point. You can go prep your ship if you'd like. It's docked in the corner main hangar bay." With that, the Admiral turned and went back to his work.

Shift looked at his brothers and they all nodded in agreement, check out their ride it was. As the group navigated easily down to the dock, Shift found himself wondering when he would be alone so he could take off his bucket. Not to be taken wrong, he loved his helmet, but being inside it all day was not his idea of fresh air.

When they reached the hangar, a small freighter sat in the far corner of the bay, the ship was only a little larger than the Twilight. The ship had a larger body, with three main rooms and a fresher. There were turret guns on both sides of the freighter with no folding bottom fin. The outside was worn had many scorched dents in the sides. Trill's whistle broke the silence.

"Well, she's a beauty. I think I might want to bring spare parts in my bag now. With that kind of outdated electronics systems, we might want some backup." Trill walked over to the nearest deck officer and started conversing with him. Rev sighed and shook his head.

"I hope this is the only time we have to ride in a vessel like this. This ship doesn't look reliable." Rev started picking at some rust on the corner of the wing.

"I like it, she has character." Both Rev and Shift turned their helmeted heads toward Gidgit. "What? If we're going to do a secretive operation, it makes sense to have a beat up freighter instead of some LAAT/i with 'This isn't a Republic ship' painted on the side."

"I'm sure General Skywalker has upgraded this bucket-of-bolts. He has technological skills, and is known for his piloting too. He wouldn't send us to our deaths in a broken freighter." Shift sighed, understanding that no matter how much he wanted to ride in a LAAT/i, it wouldn't be happening.

Trill took that moment to return then, holding what looked like to be a toolbox. He hefted it above his head. "Guys, I got paints! We can name the ship now!" Trill removed his helmet looking pleased. "Now, Flash Squad has a name and a ship."

"What's with you and naming things?" Rev muttered, removing his bucket as well. Gidgit followed suit and then Shift found himself the only one with a helmet on. Shift silently cursed in his head, that meant his bucket had to go to.

"I'll put our helmets in the bunkroom aboard the ship. Might as well make it feel like home." Shift said, bending down to grab the decorated helmets of his brothers. He climbed the loading ramp swiftly and put the helmets on a pile in the floor near the bunks. Shift figured they might want to arrange sleeping layouts later. He hesitantly removed his helmet and set it with the pile. Now he would have to face his brothers head on, no safe wall of plastoid between their eyes.

As Shift exited the ship, he observed the scene before him. Trill and Gidgit were, not surprisingly, having a small paint war. Trill had a smear of green near his hairline, and Gidgit looked like Trill had pinched his cheeks with red and blue paint. Rev was off to the side, well out of range of the tousling brothers, holding wet rags. After a few seconds, Rev walked over and tossed the rags into their faces.

"Get back to work, you're the one who wanted to name the _kriffing_ ship." Trill and Gidgit straightened up, wiping the smears off their armor and faces with the wet rags. Rev looked up and saw that Shift was standing on the ramp. "Shift, help these idiots clean off the floor so Admiral Yularen doesn't have a fit."

Shift got down on the floor and gladly turned his attention to the task ahead. If he was looking down then no one could see his eyes clearly. He got a rag and started wiping the paint of in smooth circular strokes. Next to him, Trill was grumbling. "Touchy touchy, we were just having a bit of fun."

Shift looked over at the three men he called his brothers. He had to reveal his secret. He wanted to be a part of them, being scared they would exclude them was a poor reason for not telling them.

"Uhm, I have something to tell you guys." Shift started, knowing there was no turning back now. They turned their gazes up to him and Shift forced himself to meet their eyes. "I'm defective, I have blue eyes." For a moment there was silence, then Rev got up and gave Shift a hug. Each trooper smiled at him.

"Don't worry, blue eyes or not, you're still our _vod_." Rev grabbed Shift's hand the Mando style. Both Trill and Gidgit nodded.

"We don't care, if it makes you feel better we don't have to tell Sergearnt Kies. He isn't our permanent sergeant." Gidgit offered. Shift nodded, and turning his blue eyes to the clone.

"Thanks, this means a lot to me. The Kaminoans seemed a bit doubtful that you would accept me so readily, so I was really nervous." The Kaminoans had warned Shift that his brothers might not be receiving of him because he wasn't as identical as they were. They had also discussed removing him from service, but that never scared Shift. He proved that he was ready and strong enough to be part of the Grand Army of the Republic.

"We are a group now, there's no separating us. We are going to be courageous and face the war as a squad of brothers. All differences are minor, they won't affect us." Trill announced. "But we still need to name our ship." That set the other troopers laughing, immediately lightening the mood.

"For a name… How about the Valiance? It sounds like a professional name." Gidgit volunteered, clearly feeling proud of himself. Rev nodded.

"Great, I'll write it because I have the best handwriting." With that, Rev picked up the brush and dipped it in the black paint. He painted the name on in Aurebesh with strong bold strokes.

"We all have the same handwriting, you know." Trill shot back, and Rev just ignored him. Shift finished wiping up the spills and threw his rag into the nearby garbage chute. Gidgit was very creative, and Shift had also learned that Gidgit was good with electronics and repairing broken items. As Shift reflected, Gidgit came up with another good idea.

"Can we put our hand prints on the side? Like around the name of our freighter in the colors of our armor. Mine would be black with green stripes, Trill's would be white with light blue stripes and so forth."

"I like that. Everyone get your hands ready, Rev is almost done painting the name." Trill spoke enthusiastically. The four clones excitedly peeled of their knuckle plates and black gloves. Shift grabbed the white and coated his right hand in a fine layer before adding a wide red stripe running vertically across his hand, this reflected the parts of his kit that had red stripes up and down the armor pieces, although he also had red horizontal stripes around the top bands of his leg plates and vambraces, Shift didn't paint those.

Shift pressed his hand down underneath the name of the ship. Trill placed his hand to the right of Shift's, Gidgit to the right of Trill's and finally Rev to the right of Gidgit's hand. They all stepped back at once to admire the work. Both Gidgit and Trill had done their stripes vertically on their handprint and Rev had also painted a black wide vertical stripe on his hand. The four clones looked on at the symbols on the freighter. This was their ship.

This was the Valiance.

_DOT: Thanks for reading! Please review, the feedback made me smile :)_

_A special thanks to: _**Laloga**_, who not only read the first chapter but also posted amazing stories about her clones and Kali. The stories really helped guide me along mine._

_If you're looking for other good stories to read, check out _**LongLivetheClones**_ "Whatever Happened to Captain Rex?" and _**Reulte**_'s "Scars" and any of _**Laloga**_s. They are wonderfully written with amazing character development._


	3. Soap Wars

_DOT: Oh gosh, I'm sorry for not updating yesterday! My grandparents came over and we had another Christmas celebration which left me unable to get on the laptop. There's a little bit of silliness in this chapter. Which was probably due to my giddy state of mind when I wrote this; I was very excited that I was keeping up with the expected word count for NaNoWriMo. :D_

**Chapter 3: Soap Wars**

The Resolute was well into its journey to the drop point, where it would release the Valiance and wait for the back up signal. The drop point was a few light years away from Dosuun so the Separatist's droids wouldn't spot the Jedi Star Cruiser.

Flash Squad was getting antsy on board the Resolute. They had settled in for the long wait in the bunkroom of the Valiance because Gidgit _insisted_ that it was going to be more comfortable. It wasn't. The group of clones we scattered among the different places in the room. Trill was on his bottom bunk, Gidgit on the top, Rev was sitting on the floor with his back against the wall and Shift was laying on the floor with his head propped up on one hand. After they had settled in they found that they had nothing to do. Training didn't teach them extra curricular activities for while they were waiting in transit.

Each clone had already completed most of the mandatory research over what Intel had come up with to study. It was long reading, and Trill was already almost off topic. He was currently reading about the native flora and fauna of Dosuun.

"Aw, look at this: It's a convor!" Trill flipped his datapad around and on the electronic's face was an image of a small yellow and grey… thing.

It appeared to Shift that the creature was some sort of odd mix between a monkey and an avian species. The convor had large eyes with tufts of feathers for ear appendages. There were two toes on each of its feet. There was an appendage similar to a monkey tail, but bald and leathery looking, curling around the branch the convor was resting on.

"Uh, Trill? Shouldn't you be researching something useful like-" Shift began, but before he could divert Trill back on topic the clone was already moving onto another native creature.

"Hey! It says here that one of its predators is a narglatch. Aren't those things only found on Ordo Plutonia?" Rev opened his mouth to tell Trill off, but the clone just spoke over him. "Oh wait, here it is, lower in the paragraph, it reads that they live on planets with large bodies of water like Naboo. Must be some sort of subspecies!" Trill clicked a button on his datapad. "Guys-"

"Trill."

"-look at this humongous thing, its-"

"_Trill._"

"-called a rancor. That creature could totally-"

"TRILL!"

"-eat us in two bites…" Trill's sentence trailed to a stop after Rev yelled his name. "Sorry, I got a bit carried away. This research stuff is boring!" Shift cleared his throat.

"Don't worry, Trill. It could happen to any of us, this Intelligence stuff is annoying. I think we should take a break." Shift glanced down at his chrono. "We should be arriving at the drop point in a few hours if our speed remains constant."

"Ugh, more hyperspace traveling. I think I might get sick of this stuff real soon." Trill complained. Gidgit, who had been silent for a while, suddenly spoke up.

"Can we go to the mess hall? My stomach's about to implode it's so hungry." At this, the clones all shared a chuckle and moved to get up. Rev stood and his back cracked.

"I must be getting old." Rev joked. Shift grinned at him, feeling a moment of lightheartedness, and slowly cracked each of his knuckles.

"I think I can beat that." Gidgit rolled his arm and cracked his elbow and his shoulder.

That was how the "Who can crack the most appendages on their body" competition started. After tons of kricks and pops, Shift was declared winner with a particularly loud crack from his neck when he rolled his head in a circle. Trill looked at all of them.

"That was just disgusting. I can't believe I'm going to have to live with you guys. At least when I get older, my joints won't creak as bad as yours."

The brothers all walked to the mess hall together. With one glance into the room, the squad realized they weren't going to get a seat. It seemed that every clone had the same idea at the same time.

"Well, they always do say that great minds think alike." Gidgit joked. "Maybe we could see if Admiral Yularen needs any help." With that, the clones exited the mess and headed toward the command center. Just as they were about to enter it, Admiral Yularen strode out. He started at the sight of them, his gaze lingering on Shift's eyes for a few seconds.

"You are just the type of men I was looking for." He said.

"What can I say sir? We're about the only type of men on the ship." Trill snorted, smiling. Wullf allowed a small smile.

"That's true, you clones are popular. Anyways, I need you to clean the floor of section 12C in the main hangar. It's the one containing your ship and a few others. Clean the vessels up too if you have the time."

"Sir, yes sir." Flash Squad saluted the admiral and marched off in the direction of the nearest turbolift that would take them down to the maintenance level.

"Well aren't we just walking all over the place today? We're definitely getting our daily exercise in." Rev grumbled. Shift smiled.

"At least we aren't bored anymore."

"Yeah, but I'd rather paint our ship pink or something than clean the section of the main hangar. That's going to take us _forever_." Trill complained.

"Stop whining,_ di'kut_. Your going to get on my nerves more than you already have." Rev shot back. Gidgit and Shift shared a glance and sighed. This arguing wasn't going to clean the hangar deck.

After receiving the necessary supplies to do the cleaning, which was mainly soap, sponges and a bucket of water for each of the clones, the group headed back to the Valiance.

"Great we're back where we started." Trill sighed.

"Get cleaning crew!" Shift ordered, wondering whatever happened to Sergeant Kies. "What happened to Sergeant Kies?" He grabbed his sponge and dunked it in the water, then added soap to it. Repeating the circling motions he had used a day ago when cleaning the paint war, he started the arduous task of scrubbing his area of the floor.

"I don't really know, I'd guess he's off with the other sergeants. He might be coming up with our mission strategy with General Skywalker. Don't sergeants normally do that stuff?" Gidgit responded, kneeling down to work too.

"I guess… I wouldn't know. I've never been a sergeant." Shift mulled over what Gidgit had said. It could explain his absence for the recent activities of Flash Squad. He wondered if Kies would like the new squad name.

"I don't really care what he's up to as long as he's doing his job." Rev put in, and Shift nodded agreeing with him. After that, they lapsed into the silence of their own thoughts. The meticulous swiping of the sponge on the floor didn't distract the clones' boredom. It may have added to it.

Shift finished with one area of his portion and moved onto the next. What if their mission didn't go as planned? He didn't want to lose any of his new brothers, he liked them and they accepted his eye color. General Skywalker seemed to have high hopes that they would get the mission done no matter what, and Shift hoped he could live up to that expectation. If they didn't perform the assignment as perfectly as possible, something could go wrong. Clones weren't nearly as fail safe as the Jedi.

The cold sensation of something hitting his face broke him out of his revere. Shift wiped his face to discover that his face was wet. He looked up and stared at the culprit. Surprisingly, it was Gidgit. He was sitting on his backside and his expression was dumbfounded.

"I slipped." He admitted embarrassed. Trill made a noise of annoyance and Shift saw that he, too, had water on his face.

"I'm going to get you back for that. You did it on purpose!" Trill chucked his sponge at Gidgit, which hit his chest plate with deadly accuracy, spraying water into Gidgit's face.

"Ah, Trill, really? Was that necessary?" Trill just grinned like an idiot, not seeing Rev aiming for his head. The sponge hit Trill and soaked the floor around him.

"Oh, you're just asking for it now Rev." Trill picked up his bucket of water and poured it over Rev's standard cut hair. Shift threw his sponge at Trill.

"Knock it off. We have a job to do." That was all it took for the war to start. It was a full blown soap and water war. Sponges were flying quickly through the air, trailing water everywhere. The soap bottles were knocked over and Gidgit rubbed it all into Trill's shaggy red-tinted hair before turning to Shift and doing the same. Rev had grabbed Trill and was rubbing a sponge in his face, Trill desperately trying to flip him off.

Shift shoved Gidgit a little, the clone slipped and once again fell on his butt. Shift then attempted to sprint over to Rev to soak him but he slid on the amazingly soapy floor and did a body slide into the fake fighting pair. This cannoned them into a pile where Trill was able to successfully escape and splash water onto Shift. Shift grinned and tossed his sponge at Trill who was wobbling over to Gidgit's bucket of water, trying not to fall.

Both Rev and Shift tried to get up at the same time and ended up slipping again. Gidgit had recovered and was making his way towards the pair. Finally, all the clones made it to their feet. There was a mad scramble for the closest sponge where Shift lunged for it, Rev slipped and tumbled to the ground and Gidgit was pushed off balance by an offending sponge from Shift, and Trill tossed the bucket of water into the air while managing to catch his foot on Rev's arm.

The clones ended up in a pile of tangled limbs and water. Just then was when General Skywalker entered the hangar bay to talk with Flash Squad. The group guiltily looked up and grinned nervously, their laughter of delight fading away.

"Surprise?" Gidgit asked nervously. General Skywalker definitely looked surprised. He then shook his head.

"I think you guys better clean this up, before Admiral Yularen gives you extra assignments."

"Sir, yes sir." The clones all tried to get to their feet, but they all fell comically again.

"Oh, and remind me to make a note of this later: Never let bored clones near cleaning supplies." General Skywalker laughed.

_Thanks to all who reviewed: _**Queen **_(Thanks again for catching that error, I fixed the rest of my story),_** laloga**_, and _**sachariah**. _You guys are epic for reviewing!_


	4. Sabacc

_DOT: -gasp- Could it be? It is! There is plot happening in this chapter! ;) A nod to _**reulte **_and _**laloga,** _their clones played sabacc too. I figured it must be a past time that I didn't know about._

**Chapter 4: Sabacc**

"When are we going to get there?" Trill whined. Shift sighed, this had been going on for the last half hour. The Resolute was scheduled to arrive at the drop point in about fifteen minutes. Everyone one in the squad was nervous to start the mission. Of course, they still had the three hours of hyperspace travel in the Valiance to get to Dosuun.

"Soon. Don't forget the other three _shabla_ hours we have to fly later." Rev remarked, he was in a bad mood. Trill was really starting to get on his nerves.

Several finger-tapping minutes later, a shudder could be felt through the floor and the trays and glasses shook in the mess hall where Flash Squad was waiting. The PA system activated and the voice of Admiral Yularen crackled through.

"The Resolute has just dropped out of hyperspace and is safely at the drop point. Please report to your assigned duties." The mess hall burst into action, many of the troopers going to the weapons system stations, the command center or the hangars to prep the ships. Shift followed his group of brothers to the main hangar where Sergeant Kies was prepping the Valiance for take off.

As they walked up the ramp and settled down into their positions; Gidgit and Trill at the pilot seats with Sergeant Kies supervising them, Rev in a bubble turret similar to a Y-wing's, and Shift took his pack at the other bubble turret placed on the opposite wall. They had to be prepared for anything that could possibly happen. Sergeant Kies comlink activated, and General Skywalker gave them the go ahead.

"Alright men. We have a duty to do. I want you troopers to ready for anything and everything. We could quite possibly be surrounded by Seppies as soon as we exit the Resolute. Ready to take off?" Sergeant Kies ordered.

"Sir, yes sir."

"Gidgit, turn on the engine and the thrusters." Gidgit had the task completed in a matter of seconds. "Trill, steer us out into the hyperspace position."

Trill gently pushed his controls up and forward, the ship responded by rising of the hangar floor and flying out the doors. Trill then turned the nose of the ship towards the coordinates inputted into the navicomputer. Gidgit checked the coordinates again and gave Trill the thumbs up.

"You're good to go Trill." With that conformation from Gidgit, Trill activated the hyperdrive and they were off. Shift glanced back at the Republic attack cruiser as the stars streaked into blue lines that cut through the darkness of space.

"Well, that's that. We only have three more hours to go 'til we can get down and engage the Separatist's droid army." Shift announced. Gidgit put the ship in autopilot, and Sergeant Kies took over the pilot's chair. The other four troopers retreated to the main room.

"Sergeant Kies isn't very talkative." Gidgit reflected. "I don't think he likes us."

"Nah, it's probably just that we've been doing all the fun things without him." Trill remembered the painted and water war with a chuckle.

"If anything, it's because we've been goofing off, in his opinion. He seems like the guy who likes to get things done in a strict orderly fashion, no dillydallying." Rev added negatively.

"But the "dillydallying" is the fun part! A person can't read regulations and do things exactly as ordered all the time, you have to have some ingenuity."

"Which you seem have too much of, Trill." Shift joked, slapping Trill on the shoulder. Trill huffed.

"Does anyone know how to play sabacc? It's a popular game, we could use it to pass the time." Gidgit directed the topic of the conversation to something that wouldn't start another miniature war. Shift nodded.

"Yeah, I've heard about it. Sabacc is a card game, right?

"Uh-huh. I can go ask see if Sergeant Kies has a set of the cards, if you want me too." Gidgit volunteered.

"I'll join in." Rev then looked at Trill to see what his decision would be. Trill scratched the back of his head.

"You are planning a game of sabacc and you don't even know if we have the cards to play it?" Trill sighed, shaking his head at them. "I guess I can play, just explain the rules to me again if we can come up with a deck." With that, Gidgit left the room to ask Sergeant Kies.

When Gidgit entered the cockpit of the Valiance, Sergeant Kies was watching the star lines. His back was to the door but he most likely heard the other clone enter.

"Sergeant Kies, sir?"

"What is it trooper?" Kies turned in his chair to look at the younger, less experienced, clone. His face held a frown and Gidgit got the feeling that his request was going to be denied no matter how important it seemed to the morale of the squad.

"We were wondering if you had a deck of sabacc cards we could use? We would stop as soon as we come close to Dosuun." Gidgit reasoned, hoping to sway the other clones mind into letting him and his brothers have a little fun.

"Shouldn't you keep your mind on the mission? Clean your weapons and make sure Intel hasn't come up with any more details about what we might encounter on the surface."

"Sir, yes sir." Gidgit said glumly, and left the room to go tell the dissapointing news to his brothers. As much as he wanted to tell Sergeant Kies that they hadn't used their weapons since they cleaned them and that Intel never had any useful news, he knew that it would probably just provoke the commanding officer.

"Bad news guys, I don't think Sergeant Kies has any cards…"

"And?" Shift caught the pause in Gidgit's sentence and assumed there was something else that was worse.

"We have been ordered to clean our deeces and check the latest Intel."

"What a _di'kut_. I wouldn't even know he was one of my brothers if he didn't have the same face as me." Rev was insulted, clones were taught to keep their guns clean and stay up on the news when on a mission.

"This is an outrage." Trill slammed his hand down on the table. He paused and got a thoughtful look on his face. "I have an idea for after we clean our weapons. Remind me to look for some flimsies later." Shift was just as confused as Gidgit looked. Rev left the room to go retrieve their DC-15S blasters and the necessary cleaning supplies.

"The faster we clean our weapons, the quicker we get to know what Trill's going to be up too and save him from any consequences his plan might bring." Rev while he tossed each clone their weapon and a rag. Shift snatched his weapon out of the air with one hand and caught the rag in the other.

Shift pulled out the power pack from the right side of his weapon and clipped it onto his belt. He then checked to make sure he had the safety on, before starting to disassemble the gun. With the rag he made sure to rub down every crevice and compartment his could reach, making sure each surface was clean of any dirt or carbon scoring that the tibanna fuel might have caused. He reassembled his deece then pulled down the folding stock and wiped that too. Shift completed this process as swiftly as he had been trained to do. He looked around and saw that his brothers were almost finished too.

"Trill, the flimsies…?"Gidgit reminded, intrigued to see what he was up too. Trill nodded a quick thanks to Gidgit and left the room. Rustling could be heard from the bunk room. Shift, Rev and Gidgit all leaned forward and peered around the door, trying to get a glimpse of what Trill was up to.

"No peaking." They immediately withdrew their heads back from the doorway when a rag flew out at their faces. More rummaging continued from the bunk room and with every passing moment the three troopers became more anxious. Finally, Trill emerged from the room carrying a packet of flimsies, a vibroblade, two pens and a datapad.

"What is all that for?" Gidgit asked, curiously picking up the datapad from where Trill had dumped the items on the floor. The clones sat down in a semicircle around the items. Trill passed the pens out to Shift and Rev, took the datapad back from Gidgit, clicked a few buttons and set it down in front of them. Then he handed Gidgit the stack of flimsies.

"We are going to make sabacc cards." They all stared at Trill, dumbfounded.

"That is either the stupidest idea I have heard or the smartest." Rev remarked.

"The smartest if you want to play, the stupidest if you don't want Sergeant Kies to know. I want to play." Trill explained. "Now, we're going to make a production line. I know regular cards are electronics, but I had to improvise here. Gidgit can fold the flimsies into fours, I'll cut them out, and Rev and Shift will draw the symbols onto the cards."

The clones got down to work. Gidgit and Trill finished their jobs before Rev and Shift because their jobs required less detail, so they went and scrounged up two more pens to help. With all four of them working on the cards, they were able to create them rather quickly.

"Great, now we can play." Trill fist pumped the air.

"Make sure to keep it down, we wouldn't want Sergeant Kies to know just in case he doesn't approve of it." Shift glanced at the door cautiously.

"He didn't outright say that we weren't allowed to play." Gidgit said, also looking at the door. He half expected the Sergeant to jump into the doorway and reprimand them for not keeping their minds on the mission. _Fierfek_, he almost sounded like a grumpy Jedi.

"I'll deal, because _I_ don't cheat." Rev antagonized Trill, it seemed like it was going to be a daily routine.

"Hey, I don't cheat either!" Trill retorted, but sat down at the tiny table after returning the supplies to their correct places. Rev reached out and grabbed the deck.

"Not bad handiwork, if I do say so myself." All the clones smiled at each other, knowing they were probably going on another adventure to add to their list. Rev dealt each clone two cards. "Okay, so the point if this game is to get your cards to add to the number twenty one. If you go over then you lose, but whoever's closest will win."

"What stakes are we going to play for?" Gidgit inquired. "It's not like we earn and credits or anything." They all glanced about the room, searching for something that they could use as the winnings. Trill jumped up and went to his gear bag. He pulled out several boxes. Each box advertised a different color of hair dye. Shift put his head in his hand.

"Do I even want to know where you got that?" Shift asked tiredly.

"Nope." Trill grinned widely. Shift groaned.

"Now I have to know what you've done. Tell me?"

"Fine, I acquired the dye from several troopers on board the Resolute."

"Acquired? I don't like the sound of that." Rev glared Trill. "If you stole this stuff, I'm going to dye your hair pink." He gestured threateningly with a box of bright pink hair dye.

"No no no. I won it off them from the sabacc games I played." Trill put his hands up in a settle down gesture. "How about from the placing, we can decide who gets what color. First place chooses first and so on. Does that make sense?" The group nodded. "Great, let's get to it."

Flash Squad engaged each other in round after round of sabacc for about and hour and a half. Many calls of 'cheater' and 'loser' were thrown across the room. Currently, there was a heated duel in who won the game if there was a tie. Rev and Trill were arguing about who called winner first, and Shift decided that they should play a game of thumb wars to see who was winner. Rev beat Trill in that one, but Trill on the next game of cards. Shift was currently in third place and Gidgit was last, but he looked quite happy to just be spending time with his brothers. Shift glanced at his chron, they should be arriving at the planet in an hour.

"Brothers, it's time to call it quits. We're going to need time to get ready to descend onto Dosuun." Shift announced. "Rev won, then Trill, I got third and Gidgit is last." Rev let out a cheer and snatched the box of white hair dye. Trill gave grumble and grabbed the box of red. Shift snatched a box of blue, Gidgit just shrugged and took the box of pink. Trill put the other boxes in his gear bag.

"I promise that we will use these for a later sabacc game." He then saw Gidgit smirking. "What's your problem?"

"Oh, nothing. I was just thinking about how I can use this for a prank." He smiled evilly and Shift decided that he was going to become a light sleeper. They all moved to stow away their respective dye boxes. "Why don't we use these now? We still have time."

"Okay. That sounds like a good idea." Trill said. Trill grabbed his box and so did Rev. Shift took his razor out of his pack.

"I'm just going to shave." They all moved towards the fresher on the ship and got down to business. Shift shaved his shadow of a beard made sure his hair was in regulation cut. Rev borrowed his razor to make his stripe of hair from mouth to his chin straight. "Fancy goatee, Rev." Shift joked, Rev snorted but kept shaving.

Trill had ripped open a packet of red dye and was applying it to his hair. "Mine won't take as long as yours; I'm just updating my red tint. I wouldn't want bright red hair." He informed. Gidgit moved to help him with the back of his head.

Rev took a look as his dye box. "I don't think I'm going to dye my hair now. It would look weird if I did those arrows again. I already have a tattoo of them." He showed them where the tattoo was placed, behind his left ear out where his hairline ended. Shift assumed earlier that the arrows were his trademark.

Gidgit ran his hands through his jet black hair. "I should've grabbed the black dye. I got rid of the brown tint in our hair and settled for black, it's a personal preference but it also matches my armor."

Trill stuck his head over the sink and rubbed his head while Gidgit poured water over it to rinse the dye out. When they were finished, Trill's hair had a nice red tone to it, almost an auburn brown color. Shift had never thought about dying his hair. He liked the dark brown color. Suddenly a voice echoed down into the fresher room.

"Troopers, we are starting the landing sequence. Get your _shebs_ into your stations." Sergeant Kies ordered. The clones scrambled to their designated places. Rev and Shift were at the guns again while Trill and Gidgit went to the cockpit. "I'll fly the ship down, since this is your first mission." Kies said to Trill. "We are exiting hyperspace in five, four, three… two… one."

The Valiance gave a shudder as it dropped out of hyperspace. The planet of Dosuun rested before the clone's eyes on a backdrop of black space with white star points. The planet itself had green and yellow landmasses with little cloud cover. The water of the oceans was a rich blue color.

"Wow, this is such a nice planet for the Separatists to use." Trill remarked. Shift looked at the planet with awe, it was nothing like Kamino. His brothers were also thinking things along the same line.

Just then, a shot ripped through the air and the Valiance gave an ear-splitting screech of metal.

_DOT: A cliffhanger, gosh I'm so cruel sometimes. Trill's actions with the cards made me think of Bric when he said "Well, I'll be. Creative little clones, aren't they?". There's only one more short-ish chapter left, and then they get longer. Thanks to my two reviewers _**Queen **_and _**laloga**, _you guys rock. I love all the stuff you pick out. Judging by the number of visitors this story is getting, someone must be reading it, thanks for reading to those anonymous peoples._

_As always, please review!_


	5. Remember

_DOT: Okay, so I have to change the updating schedule for this story's chapters to Tuesdays and Fridays. Mondays are too busy for me because of school and tennis, sorry! Enjoy this longer-ish chapter :)_

**Chapter 5: Remember**

The Valiance had come out of hyperspace straight into a small Separatist blockade. It was an oval object and out of it flew vulture droids. The object had dispatched about five of them, but it looked like it held at least triple that number. The droids were closing in on the clone's freighter with alarming speed. More shoots ripped passed the Valiance's wing, spurring the squad into motion.

Both Shift and Rev immediately started targeting and eliminating the vultures, spinning around in the laser turrets trying to get a lock on one. Sergeant Kies tilted the controls of the ship at a sharp angle, encouraging the ship into a steep dive towards Dosuun's surface. Trill and Gidgit helped where they could.

Shift got a lock on one of the vulture droids and clicked the trigger of the turret, taking out the droid in a fiery ball of metal. The other four droids flipped and soared above the top of the Valiance.

"Someone level the _kriffing_ ship! The vultures flew above us and we can't get a good shot at them." Rev cursed while swiveling around in his bubble. Shots shook the vessel from above. Sergeant Kies pulled up out of the dive and started zig-zagging the ship to throw off the droids. An explosion could be heard when Rev promptly blew up another attacking vulture.

"There's too many of them. Is there some way we can land the Valiance as soon as possible? The Vulture droid base releasing more droids, I think it's an upgraded version." Shift called down to the cockpit. The Automated Vulture droid deployment station sent out three more vultures, adding to the number that had originally began chasing down the Valiance.

"I'll see what we can do about it." Gidgit's voice held a small undercurrent of fear. Shift could hear the mumbling of his brothers in the cockpit. "There's not much we can do right now, unless you want to-"

"Shift, on your left!" Rev called across the ship. Shift turned quickly and caught the offending vulture in a stream of blaster fire.

"Thanks, _vod_. What were you saying Gidgit?"

"We can't increase our speed unless you want to divert all power to the engine and thrusters. That would mean disabling the guns and the shields, which wouldn't be the best option at the moment."

"So we can't do anything?" Shift asked exasperated.

"Not unless you want us to all get killed faster, then no." Gidgit replied. Shift felt like a heavy weight had just been dropped on his stomach. There was nothing they could do. The vultures outnumbered them and there was no cloud cover to try and tricky maneuvers in. "We're entering the atmosphere."

The sides of the turret where Shift was firing from started to light up with flaming colors, obscuring his vision. It sounded like Rev was having the same problem from the cursing that echoed into Shift's location.

"We can't see the vulture droids anymore; the heat is blocking our vision. Be careful of your flying, you have no defensive systems other than the shields." Shift warned, speaking for both Rev and himself.

"Noted. We're trying our best up here." Trill called. They were, the ship was doing all sorts of twists and turns in the rapid descent. Suddenly an explosion was heard from the cockpit, and the sound of shattering glass clattering to the floor.

"Trill? Gidgit? Sergeant Kies?" The Valiance was going crazy, it didn't feel like anyone was piloting the vessel now. Shift waited anxiously, waiting to hear the conformation that his brothers were okay.

"Sergeant Kies was just killed. Looks like we hit a vulture droid with our fancy flying. It hit the window, which shattered, and it got a shot off that killed Sergeant Kies who was wounded by the glass. The vulture isn't in here now; it was pulled out by gravity." Gidgit reported.

Shift felt immensely relieved and stricken at the same time. Gidgit sounded like he was in shock, but his training was taking over, and Sergeant Kies was dead. Gone. Killed. While Shift hadn't known Kies very well, that dead clone could have easily been one of his brothers.

"I'm trying to gain control of the Valiance, but it looks like we are going to have crash landing. Gidgit and I are going to level her out as much as possible from this uncontrolled decent we've gone into, plus as close to the original landing destination as we can get while crashing." Trill informed down to the turrets.

"I think the vultures have catalogued us as dead, they've stopped firing." Rev could be heard from the other side of the ship. "From what I can make out, it looks like they are following us to see if we live through this landing." He speculated. A small explosion sounded.

"That's our engine. It's failing under the stress." Gidgit said. "Maybe we should all get in the cockpit and strap ourselves in." Rev and Shift got out of the turret guns and sprinted into the cockpit. They seated themselves into the two chairs behind the pilots and buckled the harnesses. Shift noticed the body of Sergeant Kies laying in the corner with a large scorch mark on his armor. There were tiny punctures in the armor and Shift caught the glittering of the glass slivers. _Safety breach_, his mind catalogued. When they crashed the body would fly around the cabin and possibly kill anyone who survived.

Shift unbuckled his harness and jumped from his seat. He pulled open a small compartment and grabbed a roll of sticky tape. Moving to the body of Sergeant Kies, he began securing the limbs to the floor. After Shift had taped down the arms, he spread several long strips across the stomach and chest area. Satisfied with his work he buckled himself back into his chair.

"Alright brothers, here we _go-_" Gidgit's voice broke off as he concentrated on pulling the Valiance out of her nose dive. The atmosphere was heating the ship up and Shift could feel the temperate increasing. Both Trill and Gidgit were pulling up on their controls with one of them occasionally pressing a few buttons. The screeching of the metal was the prominent noise but over it he could hear Trill and Gidgit shouting instructions to each other. "Brace for impact everyone."

The ship hadn't leveled out very much, and Shift felt a pang of fear. The ground was coming increasingly closer and the green of the landscape was speeding past. Trill shouted something about aiming for a field to Gidgit. Shift saw the large swath of flat ground before a patch of trees. The Valiance bumped the ground and the dirt gave way with a rumble before the drag of the earth flipped the freighter. It rolled over and promptly shattered all the glass. Shift was eternally grateful that he had secured Sergeant Kies body. Through the open viewport Shift could see they were running out field to land in. The ship kept sliding and sliding and sliding.

The Valiance flattened the first few trees before hitting the wall of the forest and creaking to a stop. Shift felt all the air he had been holding in release. He felt tiny stings all over his body and a few bruises, but nothing seemed to be broken. Since the ship had stopped on a tilt, he was very careful about unbuckling his straps. When he lowered himself down to the wall, which was now the floor.

"Shift, help me over here." Rev was currently balanced precariously on the side of his seat, trying to unbuckle Trill. Trill was unconscious, and hanging limply in the restraints. Fear seized up in Shift's stomach again. He reached up and grabbed unto the chair, lifting himself up to Rev. Rev had unbuckled Trill and handed him to Shift who wedged his foot on the back of the other chair to support himself. Rev dropped down and reached up to Shift, indicating he should pass Trill.

After they succeeded in removing Trill, they both looked up toward Gidgit. He was also hanging in his chair. Unfortunately, from the angle they were looking at him, neither clone could tell if he was just unconscious or dead.

"Do you think he's-?" Shift started, unwilling to even consider that Gidgit might be dead.

"Let's get him down." Rev answered, sounding just as unwilling to think about it.

Shift hauled himself on top of his chair and reached his hands up towards Gidgit. He put his fingers to the neck of his brothers and felt for the beating that would signal that Gidgit was alive. He took a few seconds, fear making him sloppy, but he found the strong pulse. Shift let out a sigh of relief, his brother would be fine. He then reached for the belt buckle and fumbled with the clasp. After releasing Gidgit, he moved to give him to Rev, who had temporary placed Trill on the ground.

Another miniature explosion rocked the ship and Shift remembered Gidgit telling them that the engine was failing. That couldn't be good, they had to get out of the Valiance. Moving quickly now, the two brothers hoisted Trill and Gidgit over their shoulders and paused before the exiting the ship. Shift moved to walk forward but Rev put a hand on his chest plate. Rev motioned for him to be quite at the inquiring glance Shift shot him.

"The vultures are probably waiting for us out there, they will want to see if anyone survived." Rev explained, his voice in a low whisper. Shift answered back just as quietly.

"So do you have a plan to get out of this death trap seeing as right now we've all survived the crash?" Rev got a thoughtful look on his face.

"I'm thinking that we grab everyone's gear packs and exit via the broken window in the control room. It landed near the forest, which will give us some necessary cover while we escape."

"What about Sergeant Kies? What about the Valiance?" Shift questioned, not really wanting to leave the sergeant or their ship behind. What if Intelligence from the Separatists found their ship?

"As bad as this sounds, I think we should blow up everything. It would destroy the evidence of our ship and her records and we could cut off Kies tally and return it to someone in charge when we complete the mission."

"Okay, we'll make two trips then. On the first, let's take Trill and Gidgit out along with our guns and whatever ammo we can haul. On the second, we can grab the medpacks and everything else." Shift added. Rev nodded and they moved back toward the bulk head. Shift eased his way across the wall, being careful not to jar Gidgit too much. His brother groaned from his place over Shift's shoulders, but didn't wake up. With Rev tight on his back, Shift cautiously stepped across the shattered window.

At first glance the surrounding area seemed clear, but Shift could see the shadow of the vulture droids. He moved quickly to the cover of the trees, which become thicker right after where the Valiance had crashed. When Shift felt he was far enough in he placed Gidgit down at the base of a tree. He turned around and saw that Rev was covering his back. Shift removed Trill from Rev's shoulders and placed him next to Gidgit, then pulled branches and leaves over them to provide some camouflage until they returned. Shift nodded to Rev and they both sprinted back to the Valiance.

"We have to make this the fastest bang out, the engine could go anytime. Make sure to set the charges too." Shift informed. The two troopers moved quickly into the ship and reached the bunkroom where the gear bags were stowed. They shouldered the packs and grabbed the medical kits. Rev reached into his bag and pulled out a handful of charges. He placed one in the middle of the bunkroom and left to go place the detonators in the other rooms. Shift hurried to the control room and cut Sergeant Kies' identification number off his armor. Within minutes, Rev returned and both clones retreated out of the Valiance and moved a safe distance away so they could blow the ship up.

"The Valiance was a good ship." Shift mourned.

"And we will miss Sergeant Kies too." Rev added, and then clicked the remote.

The explosion was beautiful; it was full of wondrous reds and yellows. The Valiance blew into a million different pieces of metals. The vulture droids all turned to the smoking remains of the freighter and began scanning it. The blue lines moved over the wreckage and faded into oblivion. The vulture droids all fired up and flew back toward the deployment station. The explosion had covered their living perfectly.

What a good ship. Remember the Valiance.

_DOT: I REALLY didn't want to blow up the Valiance but I needed to get rid of the ship. I got kinda attached to it, good thing I'm not a Jedi. A shout-out of thanks to _**Queen**_,_** Elle **_and _**laloga **_for reviewing, it really means a lot to me. Happy late New Year!_


	6. Rejuvenation

_DOT: This is a little filler for the next chapter._

**Chapter 6: Rejuvenation**

Shift and Rev lingered by the smoking wreckage of the Valiance, staring into the wisps of gray that blew from the metal fragments. Shift despaired at the thought of never getting to test their freighter to its true potential, or fighting on it in a space battle. He felt like he had lost a great friend prematurely. Shift stayed watching the smoke rise because leaving the site would have seemed too final, too unemotional.

So he stayed and watched. It couldn't have been more than a few minutes since the explosion, but Shift knew that they had to return back to Gidgit and Trill before their cover was blown. The nervous shifting of Rev beside him told him that his brother was becoming uneasy also. A sudden hand on his shoulder brought him up out of his thoughts.

"We need to go, to patch up our wounds and take care of Gidgit and Trill." Rev's words reminded him of the minuscule pinpricks and aches he had felt when the Valiance crash landed. Now that his adrenaline rush had worn off he was beginning to feel the shrapnel cuts in his skin. Since both Shift and Rev had been in the same crash, Rev had to be feeling similarly. Shift stood up from where he was crouched in the foliage on Dosuun and saluted the debris of the Valiance, Rev duplicating his exact movements. Together, the two clones moved deeper into the forest, backs lightly touching, towards the coordinates they had left their brothers at.

Shift and Rev moved extremely cautiously through the trees, hyperaware of any movement and noises. With their encounter with the vulture droids, they didn't want to attract any more unwanted Separatist attention. The mission was supposed to be a silent insertion, completion and removal. No messy vulture droid bases attached. Shift made a note to warn the Resolute when they captured the droid communications base and sent out the back-up signal.

As they approached the base of the tree where they had left Trill and Gidgit, Shift noticed that neither had stirred from the positions the two brothers had placed them in. Shift refused to consider what that may mean about their physical health. Rev bent down to check Trill's vital signs first, and Shift set up a string of sensors he had found in a gear pack to warn the two conscious troopers if anything was approaching or moving near the border of their makeshift camp ground. If one of the sensors was activated or tripped, it would send an alert and image of the sensor's surroundings to the helmets of Flash Squad. It was a necessary safety precaution that provided protection and eased their minds. Being in, plus possibly spending the night in, a wild forest on an uncontrolled Separatist planet was no backyard camping trip. _Especially_ if your squad brothers were wounded.

"They both have stable vitals." Rev began while beginning to remove his armor. "I think that they'll be fine, they just need to recover from their slight concussions. It's nothing serious, just a bump to the head, I don't believe they are brain damaged." Rev paused as he struggled to remove a particularly stubborn piece of the armor on his leg. "So right now, we're going to patch ourselves up then take care of anything major of Gidgit and Trill. After that we just wait for them to wake up."

Shift sighed, he personally hated waiting. For him it felt like sitting on a battle field waiting for the Separatist droid army to find you. Then when they came, you would feel like a nuna caught in spotlights. Shift didn't even know what he would do himself if a droid, even if it was just a B1, blundered into their makeshift campsite. It would be traumatizing, because it means that you could make another more deadly mistake by not defending yourself properly. Or your defenseless wounded brothers, you don't leave them on the battle field to have the tinnies pick them off. A soldier was supposed to protect and take care of his brothers. That was the one job a clone wouldn't want to fail at.

Shift wrenched his brain from thoughts of failing. They wouldn't fail. To distract himself, he too, began removing his armor and stacking the pieces in a neat pile, so he would easily be able to suit up again after Rev fixed him up. Shift could armor up and remove his armor in his sleep, it wasn't necessary for him to watch what his hands were doing. Instead he watched Rev, who was finished taking his suit off and was checking himself for any particularly nasty splinters of shrapnel or cuts. There was the glowing blue of bacta on Rev's fingers and when he found a wound that he deemed deep, he rubbed and packed it into the bleeding area.

"Shift, can you check my back?" Rev asked, handing Shift the jar of bacta and turning around so Shift could begin. A visual scan confirmed that nothing was serious on Rev's back, which like Shift's, had the chair to protect it from the worst of the damage of the crash. Only a few pieces of metal had thinly scraped his shoulders where the armor had gaps. Shift applied the bacta liquid there, pressing lightly as to not pull at the wounds.

"Okay, I'm done." He tapped Rev on the shoulder. "You're almost as good as new. Will you fix me up?" Rev nodded, and thanked his brother with a gracious smile. He took back the jar of bacta and began checking Shift for the more severe cuts.

"I think I'm going to deem myself the team's medic." Rev announced, scanning Shift's arm before rubbing some of the liquid into a cut near his elbow. Shift made no objection to Rev's statement. "I'm using the bacta jar on us instead of the hypospray because I believe the spray is going to be easier to use on Trill and Gidgit since they're unconscious."

"That makes sense. We can't one hundred percent tell if the rubbing would be hurting them because they aren't awake." Shift felt the coolness of the bacta gel being spread across where the armor gap was in his knee. The sting in the cut signaled to Shift that the bacta was doing its job and was cleaning and repairing the wound. Rev moved around to Shift's back and applied more bacta to his shoulders. The circular motions of the rubbing was making Shift feel tired but he fought to stay awake, their ordeal wasn't over yet. He could sleep when the mission was completed. Suddenly the fingers on his back dug into a sensitive cut. Shift hissed at the onslaught of pain that flared up.

"There's a splinter of wood from the trees that the Valiance flattened in your shoulder. I have to get it out or it won't heal properly." The digging persisted on Shift's shoulder until Rev lifted his hand over and showed him what he had just removed from Shift's cut. Shift picked it up and held it in his hand.

The splinter was about half and inch long and Shift wondered how he hadn't felt or noticed it before. Most of the sliver's length was covered in blood, and Shift turned his attention back to the shoulder that Rev was working on.

"I put some extra bacta gel on that cut on top of your shoulder, and if that isn't enough or if it starts bothering you, tell me. If it does, I'll put a bacta patch on it." Rev instructed while Shift rolled his shoulder around, testing the flexibility and the muscle for pains.

"I think I'm good for now. Let's get Trill and Gidgit out of their armor and patch them up. Do you have two bottles of the hypospray?" Rev tossed him a bottle, the liquid sloshing around inside it. They both moved over to their brothers and began to remove their armor.

Since all clone troopers were trained the basic field medic abilities, it wasn't too hard to help a wounded brother out of an armor piece and apply bacta to the wound. When your brother was unconscious, things become a little more difficult. You can't exactly tell if your hurting them or not, or if you've found and tended to all of their injuries. Shift ended up relinquishing his hypospray bottle to help Rev remove Trill's armor, take out the shrapnel from the wounds and spray the damaged areas of skin.

Together, the two brothers developed a system of treatment. Rev would look for and point out wounds that needed attention, and Shift would spray them. Rev would deal with and remove the occasional splinter of wood or metal found in a cut. After they had finished the process on Trill and dressed him in his armor again, they moved on to Gidgit. Both troopers had sustained injures to their hands which both Shift nor Rev had received, but Shift and Rev hadn't had their hands on controls, trying to steer the Valiance.

Shift was glad that Rev's earlier diagnosis about Gidgit and Trill had been correct. There was nothing blatantly wrong or affecting their health. It was just about the same cuts Rev and Shift had received from the crash with a few splinters wedged in them. Now, Shift and Rev only had to wait until their two brothers woke up.

"Is there some shot or spray we are supposed to use to wake them up?" Shift gestured to Gidgit and Trill, who they had laid down at the base of the tree. Rev shook his head.

"I think the best thing for them right now is just to rest and heal. Let their bodies heal themselves. We wouldn't want them to put strain on their bodies too early, especially after being knocked out. They are going to have one mighty headache when they wake up too. Plus its not like we are doing anything around camp either. No, just let them rest." Rev finished. "We should rest too." He tossed Shift a sleeping roll and set his own up before climbing into it. Shift followed suit, feeling the days wear on his body and mind. He could face everything tomorrow. Tonight, he will rest.

Rest is the rejuvenation of your energy and soul. 

_DOT: Thanks to all who are reading and reviewing my story: _**laloga**_, _**elle**_,_ **Kishadow** _and _**SWdeathlyhalows**_._ _What does everyone think about the _Escape from Kadavo _episode yesterday?_

_On a side note, I just realize the names of my first two chapters start with B, the third and fourth start with S and the fifth and sixth start with R. Weird…_


	7. Convor

_DOT: You don't know how extremely sorry I am for not updating. School's picked up 'cause finals are next week._

**Chapter 7: Convor**

Shift woke early in the morning to that sounds of the forest. In hindsight, Shift and Rev should have taken turns watching over the camp. They had been okay tonight; both of the troopers were light sleepers because of their training. The forest was stunning with the sunlight filtering in through the tall trees. The whole planet was so foreign, it was nothing like Shift had experienced. He had seen grassy planets in pictures on Kamino but had never actually been on one.

Shift removed his knuckle plates and black gloves and sunk his fingers into the spongy texture of the grass shoots. He plucked a blade from the ground and examined it. The color was a soft yellow that contrasted with the bright green of most of the trees. Shift leaned his back into the tree he had slept by and just let his eyes absorb all the colors and sounds and smells. The earthy feel of the place was rejuvenating. The sunlight rested upon his armor and the plastoid plates warmed pleasantly. Shift listened to the sounds of small animals foraging and the native avian species chirping. What had Trill called them? Oh yes, convorees.

One of the yellow and grey creatures flew down onto the ground near him. Shift breathed lightly, as to not disturb the convor. It pecked that the berries that lay on the earth, close to the plant from where they had fallen. Shift slowly moved his hand and picked up a nearby berry. He held his hand out to the creature. It cocked its head sideways and regarded him. Its large round eyes seemed to be deciding if he was a predator or not.

"It's alright; I'm not going to harm you." Shift reached out his hand farther and the small avian hopped toward him. As soon as it got near his hand it stretched out its neck and grabbed the berry in its short beak. Its downy feathers touched Shift's hand and he reveled at how soft the texture had felt. There was nothing like that in the GAR. Shift watched as it lowered its head and began to preen the feathers on its breast, removing and grooming the down.

The convor perked its head up as the sound of one of his brothers rolling over. A loud groan of pain came a few seconds later and the convor flew off, frightened. A single bright yellow feather landed on the ground as its owner escaped to the tree tops for safety. Shift jumped up, pausing to pick up the feather and stow it in his pocket, and was at Trill's side in a matter of seconds. His brother was clutching his head and had his eyes tightly shut and the headache be was probably experiencing. Trill let out another moan.

"Ugh, I feel like I've been run over by an AT-TE..." Shift smiled as relief flooded his system, it felt good to Trill back and know that he was on the mend.

"That wouldn't surprise me, seeing as you've been knocked out for while now." Trill wrinkled his forehead, trying to remember the past day's events. He gave up shortly with a sigh.

"The last thing I can recall would be us trying to land the Valiance in that field. And then the bumpy landing… Where is the Valiance anyways?" Shift felt a flash of sorrow as he watched Trill glance from side to side as if he was expecting the see the beloved vessel landed near them.

"Trill, we had to blow her up for our escape." He rested his hand on Trill's shoulder. At his brother's look of confusion and horror, Shift elaborated. "After we crashed, the vulture droids landed and were monitoring the Valiance for signs of life. Rev and I got you guys and some gear out the shattered viewport, and then we blew the ship up so they couldn't recover any Intel or discover that we survived. The ruse worked perfectly too, since our engine was already damaged the vultures probably assumed it failed and exploded." Trill was silent for a moment, reflecting on the Valiance.

"She was a good ship. How is everyone? What's the status for our supplies?"

"We have a good stock of supplies, plenty of power cartridges some grenades and EMPs." Shift paused before continuing. "I can't say the same for everyone's health. You and Gidgit were both knocked out and had some shrapnel wounds in your hands. Gidgit is still unconscious." Trill followed Shift's gaze over to where his brother lay passed out on the earth beside him. "I'm getting a little worried for him, he should wake up soon. I'd guess that you were both knocked unconscious around the same time." He cleared his throat. "Rev's fine and so am I. We both have minor cuts from the splinters and shrapnel. We've applied bacta and hypospray on you and Gidgit and used bacta for ourselves. We all should be fine in no time."

Trill nodded, accepting the information. He groaned as his sore muscles stretched as he moved to sit up. Shift gently helped him sit up and lean into the tree and let it take his weight. At Trill's obvious look or pain etched in his face, Shift deduced that the headache was lessening like it should have. Normally when you wake up and get moving again, the pain reduces. With Rev still sleeping, Shift decided the best course of action would be to give Trill a shot of painkillers. That meant using part of their limited supply; each trooper was given two shots each before a mission. Gidgit would most likely need one when he woke up too, so they were down to six sharps.

"Here, take it easy. Let me get you a painkiller for the headache." He moved toward Trill's gear bag and rustled through its contents. He found the shot and turned back toward his hurting brother. He gently pushed Trill's head and red-tinted hair to the side and injected him into the artery on the neck. Within moments Trill pained expression relaxed. "Does that feel better to you?"

"Yeah, thanks _vod_." Shift startled when a hand materialized on his shoulder. A quick look up told him that it was just Rev who had woken up somewhere during the exchange. Rev knelt and started examining Trill. He shot a questioning glance at the empty sharp of painkiller in Shift's hand.

"I gave him a shot because his headache wasn't reducing."

"Okay, that was smart. How are your other wounds feeling Trill?" Rev said, still poking and prodding and Trill, scanning for physical discomfort.

"Uhm, I'm not in too much pain. Just a few aches and pain from my stiff muscles, and I can fix that with some stretching." He rolled his neck and Shift could hear the joints pop. "Is Gidgit going to wake up? Isn't there something in the med kit we can use to wake him up? I'm pretty sure that you're not supposed to be unconscious for a certain amount of time because the head trauma could become severe." Trill looked as nervous as they all felt about Gidgit's situation, none of them wanted to lose him.

"I think so, let me check." Both troopers watched as Rev went shuffled through the med kit that he and Shift had managed to grab while escaping from the Separatists. Medical tools after medical tools soon lined the ground around Rev as he desperately rummaged for something, _anything_, that would revive their brother. As the seconds ticked on, Shift and Trill became increasingly scared that nothing they had on them would help Gidgit. Finally, Rev made a noise of satisfaction and held up a small syringe of clear fluid.

"This should wake him up. It's a concentration of different substances that should jolt his brain a little and awaken him." They all watched anxiously and their brother eased the tip of the shot down into Gidgit's neck and injected him. "It might take a few minutes for it to spread. Let's discuss what we should do next."

The three clones all gathered around into a triangle a little distance from the form of Gidgit. They all attempted to discuss their next move but their minds were elsewhere, hoping their brother would wake up. Eventually, they decided that if Gidgit didn't regain conscious, Shift would carry him and they would move out. There was a journey ahead of them for them to reach the droid's communication base location.

At the growling of Trill's stomach, they all brought out a ration cube to dine on. It was a cream cube that consisted of no smell or taste. They chewed the nutrients slowly, hoping to curb their appetite for something that would have been served in the mess hall on the Resolute. Shift started some small talk in hopes of distracting himself and his brothers from Gidgit.

"So, Trill, you know those birds you were looking up when you were supposed to be researching? The yellow and grey colored ones?" Shift asked, planning to tell his adventure with the avain creature from earlier in the morning.

"Convorees?"

"Yeah, that. Well, I woke up this morning and was sitting motionless and one hopped right up to me and ate a berry out of my hand." He laughed at Trill's look of bewilderment. "Seriously, it touched me! The feathers were very soft and delicate. Here, I even saved one." Shift removed the feather from the pouch on his belt. He passed it to Trill, who took it and stroked the fine fibers of the plume.

"That's awesome. I wish I had been awake for that." Trill said wistfully, lost in the soft texture of the feather. He handed it back to Shift, who carefully put it back in his belt. It seemed to symbolize luck for him now. Luck for having them make it to the planet without too many injuries, luck for Trill waking up, luck for Shift getting so close to the convor, and luck for Gidgit hopefully recovering.

A low groan in the background signaled that luck, once again, was on their side. They all rushed over to Gidgit's side. The trooper was scrunched up in the fetal position, holding his head similarly to how Trill had when he woke up. Shift began rubbing his back, hopping to relieve some of the pressure Gidgit was feeling on his stomach.

"Trill, get me a bucket! I think he's going to puke. Rev, please get him a painkiller for the headache." The three troopers all snapped into action, Shift easing Gidgit up into a sitting position, Trill passing Shift a bucket which he rested under Gidgit's mouth, and Rev grabbed another painkiller sharp and injected the liquid relief into Gidgit's neck.

Gidgit's weak fingers closed over Shift's and grabbed the container. He leaned over and vomited into the bucket, his stomach clearly upset and expressing its objections. Trill moved behind Gidgit and took Shift's place at rubbing his back. Rev copied Trill on the other side of Gidgit. Gidgit continued to retch even after his stomach was empty and whimpered in pain.

"Isn't there anything we can do for him?" Trill pleaded to Rev, uncomfortable with being a spectator and unable to do anything to help.

"I don't think we should give him anything else, we don't what his reaction will be. I'm assuming that the vomiting is a side effect for the drug we used to revive him with. I don't know how anything will mix with that medicine; it may just make his upset stomach worse." Rev continued to rub Gidgit's back, who continued to dry heave, although it was slowing down. Finally, his stomach stopped convulsing and Gidgit relaxed a little, but continued to moan in pain. Gidgit sounded and looked so pitiful that Shift was scared they might have to knock him out to end the pain, no matter the side effects. It hurt to see his brother like this.

Gidgit eventually cracked his eyes open and saw his brothers kneeling anxiously around him. Shift stood up and walked a little ways into the forest to dump the container once he was sure Gidgit's stomach had settled. He buried the mess in hopes of stopping the smell and removing some trace that the clones were here, incase droids like commandos or B1s came scouting. He hurriedly returned and saw Gidgit leaning against the tree with his eyes closed.

"Thanks _vode_, for caring for me." Gidgit reached up and massaged his temples, trying to ease his headache a little more. His voice cracked because of the dryness of his throat. Trill fetched him a water bottle, which Rev lifted to his mouth and rationed the water he could consume at once. Too much would only upset his stomach again. Shift grabbed a ration cube from Gidgit's bag and gave it to Rev also. Rev began systematically feeding Gidgit and giving him something to drink.

"How do you feel now?" Rev asked.

"Feeling a lot better, it's nice to be back in the land of the living." Gidgit coughed, his throat still parched. Rev offered him more water which he accepted and drank gratefully. "What did you give me? Whatever it was made my stomach ache like something awful. I know the headache was from being knocked out."

"We gave you a sharp of a drug that would revive you. We were worried you had spent too much time unconscious, because Trill woke up this morning without the influence of drugs." Rev explained, holding up the syringe. "Then when you woke up, we gave you a painkiller for the headache." Rev held up the other used sharp.

"Oh, well, I don't want to take that ever again."

"Try not to crash a ship and get knocked out then." Trill remarked. Gidgit chuckled at that comment and clutched his stomach, still a little queasy. "And before you ask, these two _di'kuts _blew up the Valiance." Trill jerked his thumb at Shift and Rev.

"Don't give me that face; it was for the greater good!" Gidgit was staring at Shift with mock horror. "I know you named it, but the vultures were watching the ship after you guys crashed it in the first place, and since you were unconscious, we grabbed as much stuff as we good and exploded the ship to get rid of evidence and suspicions." Shift frowned and smacked Trill on the shoulder for getting him and Rev in trouble. "You should know better, I already explained what had happened to you." Trill shrugged with an innocent expression on his face.

"Rev wants to move out by nightfall, that way we can use the cover of the darkness to head out undetected." Trill announced. "We probably should pack up and be ready to move in an hour and a half. Assuming that your going to be feeling better by then, don't worry, you will because I felt better almost immediately after I stretched and got my blood moving again." Gidgit nodded, reaching up for hand to help him stand. Shift grabbed his and pulled back, lifting Gidgit to his feet. He then slapped Gidgit on the back with a brotherly hug.

"You really had me worried there." He whispered to Gidgit quietly, who looked at him a smiled reassuringly. Shift felt all his worries about his brother melt away; it was obvious that Gidgit was feeling a great deal better now. Well enough to joke around and stand up with out having muscle give outs.

"Don't worry, you can't get rid of me that easily. And I forgive you for blowing up the Valiance." He and Gidgit shared a small chuckle. Shift's hand moved into his belt pouch and rubbed the feather, it certainly was a good luck charm. His whole squad of brothers was together and well again.

Rev had reorganized the med kit and put it in his bag, but not before giving Gidgit, Trill and Shift all a painkiller to store for emergencies. The ammunition had been spread out and divided evenly between the clones so they all had an amount of each, in case they might get separated. Shift and Rev had slightly heavier packs, not wanting to stress Trill and Gidgit's health too early. The two troopers had to promise that they would all share the load squarely when the others were feeling one hundred percent.

Flash Squad had packed up their gear bags and had them hoisted over their shoulders and ready to go before the previously set time, all anxious to get the journey started. Shift collected the sensors he had placed around the small camp to keep them safe and stored them in his pack. Trill removed most of the signs that may have signaled that the four troopers had slept and recovered there.

The sun was setting, casting an orange and red glow around the shadows of the trees. All the colors of their surroundings were magnified. They all marveled at the uniqueness of Dosuun and how it was nothing like Kamino. Eventually, darkness fell, creating an impenetrable blackness that was pierced by the white light of the three moons. The troopers set off then when they would be harder to see, towards the perils of the droid communications base.

"Another adventure." Trill stated and all of the troopers agreed. Their short trip from Kamino to Dosuun had been nothing but full of them. Shift rubbed the feather again, reminiscing on his luck of having such good brothers at his side.

Lucky, indeed.

_DOT: Thanks _**Queen**_, _**Shieldman01**_, _**laloga**_ for reviewing! It really means a lot to me. Since finals are next week, it might be a week before I update again because I would like to do well on these tests. –glares at precalc textbook- I hate you, and if I get less than a B on your final I _will _shred you and feed you to the fire._

**To Shieldman01:**_ I'm glad that you're enjoying my story! It means a lot to me that you would like to use my characters but I would like to politely decline your request. I'm flattered, but these guys are special to me. Sorry :(_


	8. Mind on the Mission

_DOT: Mixing things up here, I'm thanking all the reviewers and readers at the beginning! Thanks _**laloga**_,_** shieldman**_,_** SWdeathlyhalows**_ and_** Elle**_-(I love Rex, I would write him but I'm afraid I would mess his amazingness up!) for reviewing!_

**Chapter 8: Mind on the Mission**

"So, what do you think is out there in the forest?" Gidgit mused staring off into the trees and green foliage that they had been walking in for quite some time now.

"Oh you know, convorees, narglatches, big things with scary teeth." Trill said offhandedly, wiggling his eyebrows and bringing his hands up to make fangs by his mouth. Shift snickered.

"I doubt that anything with come near us though. We are pretty tough and strange looking." Shift rapped his knuckles on Trill's shoulder plate to demonstrate. "I don't think plastoid is very tasty." Gidgit laughed at this. Everyone was feeling much more in high spirits and good health now that the scare of Trill and Gidgit almost not waking up was behind them. "Maybe a creature would make an exception for you though, Trill, you might be tasty looking." Shift fake mused, bring his hand up to stroke an imaginary beard through his helmet.

"I'm going to take that as a compliment." Trill lifted his arms up and flexed his biceps. "Thank you Jango Fett for being so perfect." This time, Rev slapped him on the arm. Trill shot an offended look at him, rubbing his arm as though it hurt, which it didn't because of the protection of his armor.

"Mind on the mission, besides, everyone knows I'm more good looking than you." Rev joked, actually joining the good natured argument. Gidgit was laughing so hard that he was holding his sides as he tried to breathe. Shift thanked the army for invented sound proofed helmets or they would be in one heck of a lot of trouble. Put a bunch of clones together and you can get a loud noisy group. Not that Shift minded; he enjoyed screwing around with his brothers when they had the time, to keep his mind from wandering to scarier things. It also felt good to be included, friendship was a good motivator.

The clones were beginning to feel the wear and boredom of the hike on their body, they knew that had to reenergize soon. The planet, although it seemed relatively flat from space, actually had a quite a few different terrain types. Flash Squad has crossed a small plain, and had seen mountains in the distance. Currently, they were walking in a forest looking for item to replenish their stock with.

"There should be a lake or a body of water around here somewhere…" Shift looked at his navigator which rested a band on his arm. The face of the navigator consisted of a square shape and there was a red arrow that symbolized their position next to a blob of blue. The blue would be the lake. "It's supposed to be on the left."

"Great, we can use that to resupply our water." Gidgit cheered. "That's plenty of fresh water to drink and maybe lots for a bath?"

"If we have time, you do realize we are on a mission, right?" Rev said condescendingly. Trill sighed and put his hand on Rev's shoulder, all buddy-buddy.

"Rev, you are _such_ a downer." Trill drawled. Rev shrugged of Trill's hand, and at Rev's expression Trill groaned. "We are just going to get clean and be on our way? No lingering around. We'll be out and on our way in maybe an hour or so. The Grand Army of the Republic can't expect us to be perfect and speedy like the Jedi."

"I think it's a good idea, if anyone likes my opinion. I personally don't like smelling like my own puke, I can still taste it in my mouth." Gidgit took a hearty swig from his canteen and swished the water around in his mouth before swallowing it. Shift completely agreed with Gidgit, though he didn't smell like vomit, he'd enjoy the fresh feeling of being clean right now. Trudging across Dosuun was more work that it looked. The sun and rigorous pace was making Shift sweat, and since all clones are identical, the others must be too. Rev eyed all of them before giving in.

"Fine, just don't blame me when you get in some sort of trouble." Trill and Gidgit cheered from their places behind him and high-fived, clearly enjoying that they had won. The group walked for a little while more until they came upon a break in the forest background and a lake sat in the middle of it. The lake was clear and crystalline, its water lapping at the stones on its bank.

"Woah, lake!" Trill started removing his armor as fast as possible. He challenged Gidgit to a race to the lake, the last one in was a rotten gooberfish. Trill won of course, with his head start, but Gidgit was a close second. He jumped in and splashed Trill who shied away from the oncoming water.

"Hey, that's not fair!" Gidgit complained when Trill splashed him back.

"Why not? You started it in the first place." The two clones started bickering and Shift silently removed his armor. Rev gave him a questioning glance and Shift held his finger up to his lips. Be quiet. After removing all his armor plates, Shift peeled of his body glove. He entered the water behind Trill and prepared to splash a huge wave at him.

Gidgit's face gave away the surprise attack, but it worked toward Shift's advantage. Trill turned around to see what Gidgit was staring at and got a face-full of water. He spluttered and got an expression of mock rage on his face.

"Oh, it is so on." Trill smirked. Shift was suddenly frightened for his safety. He slogged through the water away from Trill, hoping to form a mini truce with Gidgit before Trill drowned either of them. Gidgit got the message and the two of them advanced on Trill. The hunter became the hunted and now Trill was trying to escape them. Shift managed to get a grip on Trill's arm, preventing him from moving. Gidgit submerged and reached under the water and knocked Trill's legs out from underneath him, successfully dunking his brother.

Shift cheered at his victory when his own legs were knocked out from underneath him and he went down flailing too. He got his feet underneath him and surged up to a standing position. He turned and stared at who dunked him. It was Rev.

"Rev, aren't you supposed to be on our side?" Shift was bewildered; Rev was against this whole lake trip to start with. Rev just grinned at him and splashed a handful of water in his face.

"I'm made of the same DNA as you and I just can't resist a good water fight when I see one."

The epic fight began and by the end of it the clones were much cleaner, but more exhausted. It was hard to tell who had won, after a few truces had been broken it had been full fledged anarchy and it was every man, or clone, for himself. Each brother was soaking wet too. They all lay out in the warming sun of the midday sky to dry off. The heat seemed to soak into Shift's bones and it was pleasant. They were all feeling much better. Gidgit had even got rid of the foul taste in his mouth, or so he said.

"Are we planning to walk until nightfall after this?" Gidgit asked to Rev who was studying the map of the planet's surface.

"I'm not sure, but we want to be close to this point soon." Rev stabbed his finger on a grid point on the map. "This is our route that we are taking, and this is where we are so far." He traced a red line up through the map to a square that signified the droid base. He then pointed to their position. "We still have a long ways to go."

"Blech. I'm really started to consider adding hiking the countryside to my hate list, but at least I can cross it off my bucket list." Trill joked, inciting a laugh out of everyone. Shift stood, feeling dry enough to put his armor back on. He pulled on the black ultra tight body glove and watched as his brothers followed his lead.

They quickly armored up, attaching all the plates rapidly. The clacking of the plastoid slightly resembled the chittering noises of the convorees that Shift and the others had been hearing. When each of the troopers had pulled on his helmet they all planned their path to the communications base.

"We are going to start by heading off in this direction." Rev gestured toward the next copse of trees. "Then we just follow the natural slope and path from there." He had the map out still and offered it to Shift. The two clones crowded around the map and Rev began explaining all the small details for when Shift's turn came to take point and lead the squad.

"So, Gidgit seen anything interesting you want to ask about? I did research the native flora and fauna of Dosuun." Trill asked. Gidgit stroked his chin and pointed to something behind Trill.

"Is that a convor?" Trill turned and saw one of the small birdlike creatures sitting in a tree. He nodded.

"Yes it is. Aren't they slightly cute?"

"This is so unmanly, but, yes." Gidgit sounded embarrassed. He felt the hairs on the back of his neck stand up, something was watching them. "Hey, Trill, you feel that?" Gidgit said apprehensively, not wanting to have his suspicions confirmed.

"What?"

"I feel like something is watching us…" Trill made a weird face as if concentrating, trying to feel what Gidgit was. After a few moments he replied.

"Yeah, I do now that you mention it, it's kind of creepy. Let's get out of here." Trill turned towards Shift and Rev who were engrossed in their conversation. "Hey guys?" The bushes to the right of the troopers rustled. "Guys?" The rustling increased and Trill and Gidgit were on their toes now, truly freaked out. "_Guys?_" Shift and Rev just ignored Trill, evidently too used to his antics. Trill and Gidgit went back to back. "Guys!" Shift and Rev turned around. The rustling noise stopped and the clearing was silent. Too silent.

Out of the bush prowled a lithe grey creature. Its skin appeared to be like slick leather. Several blue highlighting lines enhanced the facial features of the animal and its claws and spine. The blue on the spine lead down the tail to the tip which was a rudder-like fan. There were three toes on the front limbs of the thing and four toes on the back legs. Each of the toes held an impressively long and sharp looking claw.

Gidgit gulped and the grey animal turning its head to the group of clones. The elongated ear on its head swiveled toward the squad, snuffling with its flat nose, whisker like flaps twitching.

"Trill? What is that?" Gidgit whispered quietly.

"It's a narglatch. I researched it when we were waiting on the Valiance." Trill answered back, his voice just as low.

"And?" Shift moved slightly closer to Rev, the creature's eyes tracking every one of his little movements.

"Uhm, they have padded feet for sneak attacks and retractable claws. The fan like tail acts as a rudder for turns during high speed chases. The females are fierce hunters and are more aggressive than the males."

"Is this a female or a male?" Rev questioned, going back to back with Shift.

"Judging by the light grey base color for the skin, I'd say it's a female. Males are more blue and black." Trill studied the narglatch.

"Just our luck." Rev sighed.

"So what are we going to do about her?" Gidgit shifted nervously and the narglatch started to creep closer. The group of clones tracked the creature's movements with their eyes. The upper lip of the animal curled up, exposing white sharp fangs, and it made a formidable snarling noise. Fear jumped into Shift's stomach.

"I'm not sure. I think she's angry at us because we must be in her territory. The narglatch probably assumed we were eating her fish at the lake, that's where they like to hang out." Trill pondered, considering the cause of the creature's actions.

"What's the best plan of action?" Rev said while reaching for his deece. It was slung across his back from where he had stored it while he and Shift were looking at the map. "Do you think we should shoot her?"

"You can't! That would be like animal cruelty." Rev lowered his blaster. The narglatch stared at them keenly, stamping its paws on the grounds, claws extending. "Maybe if we wait long enough then she'll leave us alone." The narglatch bellowed.

"I think it's too late for that, _run_!" Gidgit shouted. The narglatch charged at the group of clones who scattered. Shift turned around and sprinted as fast as he could along the path they were supposed to be taking to the droid communications base. The ground flashed along under his pounding feet, and Shift was suddenly glad for all the sprints that the drill sergeant had made them run back in training on Kamino. Behind him he could hear the panting of the narglatch.

"Shift, over here!" Trill called, and Shift veered off towards the sound of Trill's voice. Trill had jumped over a small ditch and was beginning to scale a tree. Shift pulled his gun off from around his shoulder and removed the grappling cable from his belt. He had to slow down to feed the cable down the barrel of his deece. Shift aimed his gun at a thick branch hoping it would hold his weight. The give on the trigger was instantaneous when he pressed his finger down. The grey grappling cable shot out from his gun and embedded itself in the trunk of the tree. Shift tugged on the line to ensure it would hold, in a mid sprint for the tree. He felt the narglatch advancing on him, it was a much faster long distance runner.

As soon as he was close enough to the tree, he dashed to the tree next to it. He leapt up, planting his foot on the curve in its trunk and pushed off, twisting towards the tree his grappling hook was planted in. The jump brought him up further in the tree than just stopping to climb it would have. Shift reeled in the line while walking up the side of the bark. The narglatch gave out a growl when it skidded to a stop at the base of the trunk. It tentatively reached up and planted its claws into the bark, intending to climb the tree to get at Shift.

Shift climbed another foot and let his cable line out, then pulled his feet back from the tree and started his descent. He brought his feet out and slammed them on the face of the female narglatch and jumped off, making his way back up the tree. The narglatch fell with a whimper, and it let out a small shriek as it hit the ground, effectively deterred from pursuing Shift anymore. It got up and shook itself off, stalking back into the bushes. Shift scrambled for the comlink on his vambrace. He pressed one of the buttons and radioed his brothers.

"Hit the trees, the narglatch can't climb them very well. If it tries, kick it in the face." Shift looked over to Trill, who was also resting in the upper branches of a tree. "Thanks, _vod_. I would've been narglatch chow without you." Shift saw Trill smile through a small helmet monitor in his HUD.

"Help!" Gidgit's voice crackled in through the com. "It's not giving up and it's just pacing in between Rev's tree and mine." Shift's mind ran double time, thinking of all the options that Gidgit and Rev could use to rid themselves of the narglatch.

"Can you put your blasters on stun setting and shoot the creature?" Shift asked, feeling confident in his idea.

"No, Gidgit's blaster was around his shoulder and when the narglatch grabbed his pack as he was climbing the tree and it severed the shoulder strap of his blaster and backpack, and it clawed mine out of my grip when I tried to aim at it when the kicking didn't work." Rev reported, grunting as he presumably aimed a kick at the narglatch.

"We are on our way over. Turn your locators on at short range; we don't want the droids finding us but it's a chance we are going to have to take." Trill answered, rappelling down his tree. Shift locked his navigator unto their brother's signal, and then descended his tree.

Shift's feet hit the ground and he was off, running towards Gidgit and Rev's position. He knew that Trill was right behind him, covering his back. They moved along the forest following the bleeping of the navigator. Shift and Trill knew they were close when they heard the growling of the narglatch. He lifted his gun and flipped the switch to stun. Shift fought his way through some particularly stubborn foliage and stumbled into the clearing.

The narglatch whipped its head around to watch Trill enter behind Shift. It prowled away from the trees his brothers were sheltering in and circled Trill and Shift. They automatically went back to back, training the muzzles of their guns on the creature. The grey skin of the narglatch rippled with muscle as it stalked them.

"Is there a particular place we are supposed to shoot at to knock her out?" Shift asked, turning his head slightly toward the helmet of Trill.

"I'd say to avoid the head and aim for the main part of the body, but I'm not really sure." Trill answered. "I can't really get a good aim at the narglatch, her head keeps swinging in between us."

"If she charges at us, like last time, she might raise her head and we can shoot her in the chest." Trill nodded at Shift's logic.

"So we wait."

They didn't have to wait long. Each pass of the narglatch brought her closer and closer. Then abruptly she turned off and walked into the bushes. They rustled a little bit before standing still.

"Don't let your guard down, she's probably going to circle around and attack us from the other side." Trill said, starting to shift sideways, forcing Shift to move with him. They turned, growing increasingly impatient and nervous.

There was only a single sound of dirt scraping to warn Shift of the impending attack. The narglatch rushed out and Shift squeezed the trigger on his deece, downing the creature. It ran a few feet more before its feet gave out and it tumbled to the ground with a roar. It slid a bit further and then it stopped. The narglatch was completely unconscious.

Trill walked over to the beast and prodded it with his booted foot. The body of the narglatch moved but it didn't wake up. He knelt down and pulled up the eye lid of it and the eyes were rolled up.

"That was a great shot; this narglatch is going to be out for a while." Trill remarked, eyeing the beast appreciatively. Shift grinned, glad the ordeal was over and walked over to the trees to help his brothers down. Gidgit climbed down the branches and grabbed Shift's offered hand and jumped down. Trill assisted Rev out of his tree.

"That was scary, I was sure that Rev and I were going to have to take the animal on with hand combat." Gidgit patted Shift on the shoulder, before moving to recollect his broken pack.

"And that wouldn't have worked out well." Rev said gruffly. Shift retrieved Gidgit's gun that was a few meters away from Gidgit's pack, where it had probably landed after being kicked away by the narglatch. Trill got Rev's deece for him.

"We could tape your gear bag's straps together." Trill offered to Gidgit who was trying to tie the straps into a knot, and not getting much success.

"That would be nice, thanks."

"The sticky tapes in my bag, I took it out of one of the Valiance's containers before we blew her up." Shift knelt, letting Trill rummage through his back for the object. He found it and tore off a few pieces then returned the tape to Shift's pack.

"The tape's not going to hold for forever, so the next time we make camp we should build a small fire and melt the straps back together." Trill informed, staring at the frayed ends of the split straps. Gidgit held the two ends together and Trill wound the tape around it a few times then added another piece. After adding the temporary fix to the back pack, he patched the gun shoulder strap up. Rev busied himself wiping the dirt and dust off his gun.

"What happens if we run into another narglatch? I don't want to go through all of this again." Gidgit questioned, kicking at the dirt. "We don't want this one to follow us either, she was really aggressive."

"The females tend to be more aggressive than the males because they generally do the hunting. I don't think we will have a problem with anymore narglatches if we don't stay in their territory for long. This one attacked us because we were in her lake, I think." Trill piped up, with all the technical knowledge on the creatures.

"But how do we stop this one from following us? I don't want to have my gun on stun the entire mission, if we see droids the setting wouldn't affect them; it only works and living things." Rev sounded worried. "I think we should just shoot her."

"I don't think we have to. Just think about it." Shift started. "We have obviously proved ourselves to be greater enemies. The narglatch is going to wake up with an awful headache and probably will think twice about attacking us. Plus if we move far enough along, we won't be in her territory either."

"Okay, I'll believe you. But if another one attacks us, I will shoot it." Rev grumbled, putting he deece back over his shoulder after he finished wiping it down.

"I hope this doesn't happen on every mission that we go on." Gidgit muttered, "Otherwise, we might need animal repellant or something."

"I thought it was kind of fun, now that everyone is okay." Trill chuckled. "Maybe we should swim in every lake we come across." He mimicked the motion of swimming, inciting a laugh out of Gidgit and Shift.

"I won't help you the next time we get into something like this." Rev frowned.

"You didn't, Shift did. Remember?" Trill pointed to Shift.

"Minor details. Keep your mind on the mission." Rev knocked Trill on his helmet with the knuckle plate on the back of his hand. As Rev turned away, Shift saw the side of his mouth curve upward in his helmet monitor.

_DOT: So I finished finals and got all As in my classes which means I'm happy :). Sadly, my english teacher still managed to give us homework. And I was looking forward to a stress free weekend. So I'm putting it off and decided to post a chapter instead._


	9. Firefight

_DOT: More action in this one :) Plus a reference to The Clone Wars: Season 1: Rookies!_

**Chapter 9: Firefight**

"So, isn't it kind of weird how we haven't seen metal or oil of a droid so far?" Trill asked.

"Now that I think about it, yeah it is. Shouldn't they have like patrols or something scanning the area?" Gidgit glanced around, scanning the surroundings with his HUD. "My scanners have been coming up negative for the past few times that I've looked."

"Well, we are coming up to the droid communication base's range soon. The Valiance crashed sort of far away for a reason. We don't want them to detect us before we attack." Rev checked the map of their progress.

"That means we are going to have to be a lot stealthier than we have the past few days." Shift concluded with a frown. "Avoiding detection would be nice." If they were noticed now, they would be in a whole load of _osik_.

Since the narglatch attack, they had been traipsing through the forest at a good pace. No more animals had taken notice of them. Flash Squad wasn't too far from the base now; maybe the droids had been keeping the native creatures in line. Trill had melted Gidgit's straps back together and they had all carried their packs this far. Taking the base would require them to carry minimal items to slow them down, so they would have to hide their gear bags before going into it.

"After we climb that ridge we should be in their territory, so to speak." Rev pointed to the cliff ahead of them.

It looked like someone had taken a giant vibroblade and cut away a large section of the land, and they were on the side that had less land. Which meant that they had to climb. The past few days had been a nice break, and Shift had almost forgotten they were on a mission. Now they had to get dirty and do the hard work of their assignment.

The group walked in silence until they reached the wall. True to Shift's earlier observation, it was flat and slick. It was a dark grey color with swirls of light grey mixed into it, due to the different amounts of minerals. The rock face had been beaten smooth by years of the rain and weather on Dosuun. That would make it much more difficult to scale than a cliff made of dirt. With a dirt cliff, there were generally notches and ledges you could use to climb it. An even, smooth cliff meant that there was no where to put your hands and feet if you were climbing it. The clones looked at it, pondering their next move.

"How are we going to scale this thing? There's no where to place our grappling cables on it. The rock is too hard." Shift said, resting his hand on the face of the cliff, knocking at it experimentally.

"And we can't climb it either, there are no footholds." Gidgit picked at the rock, gauging how easily it crumbled. Nothing came off. Rev sighted it up with his blaster and shot a bolt at it before anyone could react.

"Rev! What the heck are you doing?" Shift yelled.

"Relax, nothing happened. See?" Rev pointed to the rock. Where the bolt had hit was all black and carbon scored, but the dent in the rock was minimal. There was almost no damage that had been caused by the shot.

"How are we supposed to get over this? We don't have any jetpacks to just fly over it." Trill grumbled, kicking the cliff in frustration. Shift noticed Gidgit, who was looking up above the cliff, then down to the bottom. Then he looked back up and down. Shift silenced Rev and Trill to let Gidgit think. Gidgit pulled the grappling cable clip off his belt.

"If we use the grappling cables, we could climb the cliff. By shooting it at one of the trees, the cable will embed itself in one and we can use it to climb up." Gidgit gestured with the clip.

"Will it be strong enough to hold our weight? There's a high chance it will rip out of the trunk with our weight and the angle it's at." Rev figured, observing the trees on the top of the rock wall.

"What if we just send one trooper up, and once they're at the top, they can tie the cable around a rock or tree?" Shift asked, trying to pick an option with the best chance of success.

"I'll go." Trill volunteered seriously. He clipped his grappling cable to his gun and took aim at the tree. His finger squeezed the trigger and the cable shot from the gun, zipping through the air before landing with a thunk in the trunk of a tree. Trill tugged on the line, and it held fast.

"Good luck, _vod_." Rev rested his hand on one of Trill's shoulder bells. Shift and Gidgit also said little half-goodbyes along the lines of "Don't fall" and "Make it to the top". They jokingly saluted each other, and then Trill grabbed the cable and started to climb up.

Trill hadn't even reached the estimate halfway point up the cliff when the grappling cable began to creak ominously. Trill carried on pulling himself up hand over hand, paying no head to the noises around him. That's what Shift would have done. You don't guess what would happen if the cable tore out of the tree, you just hurried your _shebs_ up to the top faster than it could happen.

Continuing to haul himself up the grappling cable that was never meant for this height at this angle, Shift saw Trill glace down. His t-shaped visor glinted in the sunlight as he looked back up. Trill called down to his brothers that were waiting anxiously below him.

"I'm nearly to the top." Trill was farther than Shift thought he'd be at this point, but they were all trained to be fast. Grand Army of the Republic fast. The grappling cable creaked again, protesting at the weight of Trill climbing it. There was a crack of wood being bent into shapes it didn't want to be in. The tree was splitting, and the cable was coming loose.

Shift desperately wished they had picked a different tree. But as he surveyed the array on top of the cliff, Shift realized Trill had chosen the most practical tree of the bunch. All the other trees that grew on the edge of the stone were even more willowy and thin than the one Trill was using to scale the rock wall. Trill wouldn't have even made it to the halfway point if he has used one of the other trees.

Trill pulled himself up another arm-length, the grey cable quivering madly. Shift idly wondered if that made it hard to hold on to. He pushed the thought to the back of his head and focused on willing Trill to make it to the top before the grappling cable wrenched itself from the splintered tree trunk. Just a few more feet now…

With a final resounding crack the grappling cable came loose from the now damaged tree. The next few seconds seemed to speed by and slow down at the same time. Trill started falling, his hand just missing the top of the cliff. Shift's stomach dropped and he felt a rush of icy fear. He watched Trill's arms flailing, scrambling to catch onto something, _anything_-. Trill's finger's grasped and tangled themselves into a few of the roots on the edge of the rock. The gun clattered against the rock wall and fell to the ground, the grappling cable trailing after it.

Shift's relief was instantaneous. A fall from that height could have resulted in serious injury for his friend. Trill dangled by his grip on the tree roots, sending a shower of dirt down unto the three clones below.

"You alright up there?" Gidgit called. Trill twisted around so he could look at his nervous brothers.

"Yeah, doing… just-" Trill grunted, reaching up farther and pulling himself up toward the top of the cliff. "-fine up here." He hauled himself up and stretched his arm as far as it could go. The tips of his black clad fingers grabbed at the rock and he got a good grip. Trill lifted his other arm and pushed himself up on to the top of the cliff, rolling onto his side on the solid ground. "I never knew all those pull ups would come in handy so soon." Shift could hear the grin and relief in Trill's voice.

"Want your gun back?" Shift lifted the deece up and prepared to throw it. The blue and white color of Trill's helmet appeared over the side of the cliff, ready to catch the blaster. The gun arched through the air and landed in Trill's outstretched hands. He removed the grappling cable cartridge and pulled out the grey cable with one swift yank. Trill tied one end of it around a rock with a few loops and several swift knots. He then dropped the excess cable over the edge of the cliff.

Rev grabbed the makeshift rope and began to climb it. He was up at the top with considerably less troubles than Trill was. Gidgit went next, and then Shift prepared to scale it next. He grabbed the cable and started to lift himself up. It was thin and hard to grasp, so Shift copied his brothers before him and wrapped his legs around the cable, inching his way up like a carrier butterfly caterpillar. He had read about the bright creatures that lived on Maridun in his training on Kamino.

When he got within an arms reach of the top, Gidgit reached down and grasped his hand, pulling Shift up onto the top of the rock wall. Shift rubbed his hands together, dusting them off. Trill untied the knots from around the rock and rewound the cable back into the cartridge and stowed it on his belt. They all shouldered their gear packs and cradled their deeces in their arms.

"Let's move out. We don't want to stay vulnerable in the open for much longer." Shift agreed with Rev's words, the top of the cliff was sparse and there wasn't much vegetation to hide in. Flash Squad moved into the forest, deeper in the shadow where they weren't as likely to be noticed. Now they had to be very careful, which meant slower progress. The ridge had been more or less the imaginary boundary line of the droid communication base.

They moved through the trees with extreme caution, not wanting to rustle them too much. Occasionally, one of the troopers would peer down the scope on his blaster, checking something off in the distance.

"I wish Intel had given us some sort of droid scout schedule, I hate sneaking around on edge." Trill complained looking through his gun, observing the forest around them. Intel had been useless again, but when was Intel not useless? They had the knack for never collecting important numbers or times. Shift had heard that they often underestimated the amount of droids, so if Intelligence had a number of expected tinnies, you should always estimate around double what they predicted.

There was a slight whine of a landspeeder model in the distance.

"Drop!" Gidgit shouted, and all four clones flattened themselves prone on the ground. The landspeeder, possibly a swoop bike, passed near the group. Shift could hear the growling of the engine somewhere to the right on him. His training kicked in and he tried to pinpoint the location of the vehicle.

After the rumble of the landspeeder stopped, presumably its occupants had reached their destination, Shift was able to make out the barest sound of voices. He increased the volume magnification in his helmet with a couple of blinks. He could make out the robotic voices of the B1 droids now.

"-should go get your head readjusted, it feels great after all this watching. We'll take your shift now." The battle droid's mechanical voice filled Shift's ears now. He could detect the clanking of their metal joints, which suggested that the droids had been assigned to watch duties and they were changing guard.

The motor of the speeder started up again and Shift pushed himself even deeper into the ground, hoping he couldn't be seen. The droids continued blathering away becoming background noise to his ear; Shift's main focus was on the landspeeder. Shift vaguely noted that he only heard the higher pitch of the B1 battle droids, indicating that there were no B2 super battle droids for there was no masculine voices in the conversation.

"I'm telling you, we are much more intelligent that those vulture droids." The first B1 started.

"Roger that." The second B1 affirmed. The speeder noise was getting closer to the clones position.

"Can you believe they thought that the clones had survived? That's ridiculous. Their chances are like a million to one. The vultures should take a well needed trip down to the maintenance level."

"You sound like a tactical droid." The two droids shared a laugh. "We wouldn't even be out here if the vultures had destroyed the ship in the air like they were supposed to." The landspeeder had to be nearly on top of them by now.

"Nothing gets done around here if we aren't watching." The first B1 battle droid complained.

The speeder was moving right next to Flash Squad's position. Shift could see Gidgit tracking the vehicle with his deece, ready to take it out if they noticed. Shift felt something hit the grass beside him. He glanced over; it was a model of electrobinoculars that the Separatist army used. The _kriffing_ B1s must have dropped it. The speeder slowed down to a halt and Shift cursed.

"Hold it, I dropped my electrobinoculars." The droid on the back of the landspeeder model informed the B1 driving it. The droid awkwardly dismounted the vehicle and began to make its way through the undergrowth towards Shift.

Shift's heart pounded and he got ready for the incoming conflict. He dialed his volume enhancer back down to normal and moved his gun into a better position. His brothers around him slowly slid into their positions too. The clanking of the droid came closer, and closer and closer.

It strode through the bushes, unaware of the perils it was about to face. The B1 battle droid bent down to pick up the electrobinoculars that rested on the ground near Shift. Shift sighted up the droid and was ready to take it out.

"Alright, three... two... one!" Shift squeezed his finger on the trigger and took the B1 out with a neat clean shot. It struck the droid in the chest section, frying the wires used for processing and mobility. The battle droid collapsed to the ground, effectively and quickly scrapped. "Tinnie down." Shift reported, crawling toward a more covered area for protection.

"What the-?" The other B1 on the bike had seen its partner get shot. "Call for backup!" It commed the other two battle droids at the watch post.

"Roger roger." The clanking of the joints on the two B1s was heard, heading in the clones' direction.

"We have a situation out on the west side of the base." One of the B1s lifted a comlink to its voice piece. "We need-" It was immediately cut off as Gidgit downed it with a shot to its head. The battle droid slid oddly to the ground. The other two had their guns pulled and were spinning around, looking for their attackers.

Trill popped up from behind the droids, and took another out with a blast from his deece. He had crawled in his stomach around to circle the droids, as to prevent their escape if necessary. The B1 battle droid clatter to the ground and Trill ducked into the bushes.

"Calling for back up, I think there are clo-" The last remaining B1 was neutralized by Rev. He grunted as he dragged the B1 next to the others, who had been piled up by his brothers.

"We need to get rid of this mess." He wrenched the plates off of the body portions of the droids, exposing the oil chamber used to keep them running. He reached back and grabbed a light out of his back pack and lit the oil on fire. "This is going to hide some of the battle droids, let's get rid of our foot prints." Each clone grabbed a branch or some leaves and began obliterating traces of their presence.

"Do you think the other battle droids back at the base got their message? If so, we are going to have to split out of here pretty fast soon." Gidgit questioned, staring at the pile of burning B1 parts. He moved an arm more directly into the flame with a nearby tree branch.

"I'm thinking that there is a miniature barracks nearby. Those B1s wouldn't have made it all the way out here from the droid communications base, they are too stupid. They probably would have hit a tree, you know how outdated they are." Shift said, picking up the electrobinoculars that had started the entire confrontation. He peered through the eyepiece of the object, scanning the forest.

"That makes sense, we best be on our way then, before we get caught in another mess." Trill shouldered his pack and turned to the direction of the base. He paused though, when he heard a peculiar noise. "Oh no, we have more company. The barracks must be closer than we thought." The speeders whirred into the view of the clones.

"_Osik_." Rev cursed, ducking as blaster fire began raining down on their positions. There were about six landspeeders, and two B1 battle droids on top of each. A total of twelve droids. Shift fired a volley of shots at the incoming droids, knocking one off its bike. Around him, his brothers were also fighting to defend themselves against the enemy fire.

"Should we use an EMP grenade? It would be helpful to get them off the speeders." Gidgit said while he moved over so Trill could grab three of the spherical grenades. Trill tossed one to Shift and handed the other to Gidgit. Shift clicked the button on the EMP and aimed it so that it arched up and landed in the path of the landspeeders. Trill and Gidgit also threw their grenades into the speeders' way.

"Droid poppers deployed! Go go go!" Shift shouted. All four troopers moved back to avoid the worst of the EMP's effects. The small grenades went off in an orb of blue electrical energy. It expanded and caught the droids and the speeders in its explosion. The energy damaged and immobilized the majority of the B1 battle droids and stalled the landspeeders. Two of the vehicles crashed into nearby trees and the others flipped or stopped.

Most of the battle droids were incapacitated, but a few were still moving and groaning after the wave of electric blue energy passed. Flash Squad moved around the fizzling parts of the speeders and droids, shooting anything that showed even minimal signs of being able to function. The result was a crash site of smoking mechanical parts.

"Let's just get out of here now. Chances are they know we are here." Shift suggested urgently. He felt as if another patrol was going to pop out of the bushes at any time. The skirmish had put him on edge. The farther they moved from this location, the more at ease he would feel. The other clones all nodded and they sprinted away from the destruction.

They looped around a few times to obscure the path that they had taken, and to discourage possible trackers that might be following them. When Rev felt that the team had done sufficient work hiding their trail, they slowed to a brisk walk. Shift checked the charge on his deece, he had fired quite a few more bolts than he had planned to, for fear had taken over a small part of him. Trill sorted the EMP grenades and split them again, each clone had only two or three now. They couldn't afford another conflict like earlier, otherwise they might not have enough ammo and demolitions to take out the droid communications base and secure it.

"Well that went well." Trill said happily, clapping each of his brothers on the back. Rev looked at Trill like he had lost his mind. "What?"

"We expended more ammunition that necessary. It was a poor performance on our part." Rev grumbled, obviously upset with unplanned encounter with the patrol.

"We did make it out alive, and take down all the battle droids, right?" Trill gestured with his hands. "Therefore, I think the battle was a great success." He smiled. Shift could find no issues with his logic. They had lived through it, after all.

Plus defeating the enemy was always nice; it felt good to win.

_DOT: Thanks to _**Queen**_ and _**laloga **_for reviewing! Again, anyone who catches the quote gets a cookie!_


	10. Chapter 10

_DOT: Yeah, so ummmm… School's been cranking up the work load lately and I was sick, so this chapter is extremely delayed. Sorry :(_

**Chapter 10**

After beating a hasty goodbye to the patrol border line, Flash Squad had once again embarked on their journey to the droids communication base. Their target was to reach the outer security wall and enter the facility. Of course, it wouldn't be as easy as counting _solus_,_ t'ad_,_ ehn_. Everyone in the group had their own personal opinion on what the wall would be like and how they would get over it.

Trill's opinion, like usual, was beginning to move from barely conceivable to outright ridiculous. His idea of the wall had mines and trip wires running up it, along with all other sorts of crazy things guarding it. Like a hundred commando droids lined up along the perimeter of the wall. Shift didn't think that they would encounter any commando droids, maybe a few B2 super battle droids, but nothing that ridiculous.

Shift had ruled out ray shields for the wall, because they could disrupt the signal of the communications base. He didn't think mines were smart either; they would blow a hole in the barrier if something even brushed against the detonators. If that happened, then the perimeter would be breached and open to any who wanted to enter. Shift didn't doubt there would be droids guarding the wall, or some sort of device that would note the clones' presence.

Rev was staying on the more practical side of the guessing with Shift, and Gidgit just listened, enraptured by all the different possibilities that they were brainstorming. Gidgit occasionally put in his thought, but didn't elaborate too much on what he thought might be waiting for them when they reached the defensive barrier of the droid communications base.

Trill speculated away about what the defensive wall might look like until the group of clones was basically sitting on it. If Shift didn't know better, he might have thought Trill was disappointed about what he saw. But since he did know Trill, the frowning expression on his face just meant that he was trying to figure out what might be in or behind the barrier.

The perimeter wall was just that, a wall. It stood maybe twenty five feet tall, rising up as if to meet the sky. The bricks that made up the wall were a standard dull grey color, stacked in staggered rows for stability. It extended on both sides to surround and encompass the communications base. The wall was solid, no obvious niches or holes that the clones could slip through.

"_Shabla_ wall, why couldn't you at least have a hole in you?" Trill groaned when he saw they they would be doing, yet again, more climbing. "What's with this trip and climbing anyways? Next mission, we are going to apply for a planet that is nice and flat."

The troopers were all hidden in the undergrowth and the trees, right before the vegetation stopped. There was a good fifty feet of cleared land before the barrier. Peering around the tree Shift was hiding behind, he could see that the wall was going to be no simple task for them to get over. Beside him, Shift could see Rev inspecting the wall for flaws and traps. Gidgit was scanning along the wall's perimeter, searching for droids that would be guarding it. He sighed, blatantly unhappy with what he discovered.

"There are droids guarding the perimeter of the wall, along the top." Gidgit pointed to the barely noticeable tan forms of B1 battle droids. There were a few flecks of dark grey, signaling there was B2 super battle droids at the top also.

"The wall is well built too, no cracks or weak points in it. We won't be sneaking in through the wall, or under because that would be ridiculous." Rev made a pointed look at Trill, as though he knew Trill was thinking about digging a trench beneath the barrier. Trill grinned sheepishly. "So our only option is to go over it, or through the main entrance."

"How about traps or mines?" Trill asked from his hiding place behind a leafy green bush. Shift magnified the visual in his helmet. The wall didn't appear to have any motion detector beams or electromines planted on it. Shift lowered his head and looked at the expanse of ground before the wall, where all the foliage had been removed and cleared away. He made a noise of disappointment in his throat and his brothers looked at him expectantly.

Across the screen in his helmet, the empty land in front of them had several crossing of red beams. The beams appeared to be in rows, one red light line every few lengths. They were motion detectors, motion detectors that would no doubt set off some monstrosity. Probably the hundreds of droids that Trill seemed to think were hiding behind the wall. Shift recalled some trooper gossip he had heard on Kamino about a new type of super battle droid that had built in jetpacks.

"Motion detectors. If you turn on a certain setting in your HUD you'll be able to see them." Shift watched as his brothers did that and also made displeasure. "That's going to make things even harder. We'll have to watch where we put out feet; we wouldn't want to accidently set one of them off."

"How do you propose we take of the droids on the top of the wall first?" Gidgit sounded discouraged, feeling frightened about the chances of them completing their mission.

"I'm thinking that we should wait for nightfall and see what kind of lights they have set up to illuminate the surroundings around the barrier. If the lights don't intersect, then we could sneak up next to the wall in the darkness." Shift pondered.

"Want to make camp then?" Trill consulted his navigator. "There's a good place, not too far from here where we could put our gear packs down and get some rest." He turned his wrist toward them, so they could see the spot he was taking about. Rev shook his head.

"I don't think we should leave this location. We don't want to be caught off our guard by a patrol, and the patrols most likely won't search this short of a distance from the wall. Plus we want to be here and observe the schedules of the happenings on and around the wall." As much as Shift wanted to go create a camp a decent distance away from the droid communication base, he knew that Rev was right. Trill realized that Rev was making sense, so the group of four clones set up a small easily removable camp.

The camp wasn't anything special. The brothers had set their gear packs to the side, but within grabbing reach. Shift had helped Gidgit lift a log to place on the back side of the resting place, the side opposite of the clearing before the wall. The bushes and foliage provided enough cover that the clones didn't have to do much else camouflaging. After they had all settled down in their respective spots around the makeshift camp, Trill broke out a ration cube from his tool belt.

"Might as well fuel up." Trill pulled off his helmet and ripped open the plastic wrapping around the cube. He bit a huge chunk out of it and chewed vigorously. He swallowed and repeated the process. Gidgit unsealed his bucket too and stared at Trill in awe.

"How can you even stomach so much of the ration cube at one time?" Gidgit pulled one of his own out and inspected it.

"I don't know, I just do." Trill shrugged and looked at half of the cream colored object in his hand.

"But it's so bland!" Gidgit complained.

"The texture is off too, it dissolves. I don't trust food that dissolves when I try to eat it." Shift declared, taking out and unwrapping his ration cube meal also.

"If you're hungry enough you can eat it. Imagine that it's uj cake, the kind that that Mandalorian instructor brought in for his commandos." Trill closed his eyes as he chewed, demonstrating.

"When did you taste any of it? He wasn't our instructor and he never shared it with clones outside his group." Rev brought up. Trill looked a little guilty.

"I heard them talking about it once in the mess hall. I was curious and I stopped by his room and asked for some."

"That was rude of you. He actually gave you some?" Gidgit asked, intrigued in Trill's tale of tasting uj cake.

"Yes, he seemed very sad. He asked me how my training instructor was and how I was doing. He acted like he genuinely cared about me. Then he offered me a piece of cake, saying that I deserved to taste some kind of luxury during my life." Trill's eyes were glazed over as he relived the memory. He absently took another bite of his ration cube.

"What does uj cake taste like?" Shift asked, wondering if he could replicate the taste to trick his mind like Trill did.

"It was sweet and very sticky. Try and think of the sweetest thing you've had, and then add a sticky, soft, moist texture. Imagine the ration cube is a cube of cake."

Shift and Gidgit shared a glance as they removed the plastic freshness seal off their ration cube meals. Shift looked doubtfully at Trill then took a bit of his ration cube at the same time as Gidgit. He closed his eyes and thought back to the sweetest thing he had eaten. Shift decided the sweetest thing he had tasted was burrfruit. The round fruit was a deep purple with lighter purple lines running through it. He remembered how when he bit into the burrfruit, the juices had dripped into his mouth and the fruit had a semi-tough outer skin but had a smooth and silky interior.

The ration cube slowly dissolved in his mouth into a pile of mush which sort of reminded him of the burrfruit texture. Shift could almost taste to burrfruit. To his surprise, Shift realized he had eaten another bite of his ration cube. He ate it the same way, thinking of the luxurious burrfruit. He opened his eyes to see Trill grinning at him.

"It worked, didn't it?"

"Yeah, but I didn't even have to imagine uj cake. I just used the sweetest thing I had eaten." Gidgit nodded, agreeing with Shift.

"What was the sweetest thing you guys have eaten?" Trill questioned curiously. Most clones had eaten at least one thing that wasn't part of the standard diet on Kamino.

"Mine was burrfruit, it's very similar to jogan fruit. When Commander Bly came back from his mission from Maridun, he handed out some of the fruit to nearby troopers when the Kaminoans weren't looking. You know how they confiscate items that we aren't supposed to have." Shift said, eternally grateful of the Commander for sharing the treat with him.

"I have had jogan fruit." Gidgit smiled at Shift because of their similar taste experiences. "My training instructor had some once, I can't remember why though." Gidgit pulled out a datapad from his back pack and typed a few words on it. He turned the screen towards Shift. "I think that burrfruit is a subspecies of jogan fruit, they both look the same except for the colors of the plant leaves."

"What about you Rev? Want to try the ration cube trick too?" The three clone troopers all looked toward Rev, who was sitting quietly. He was leaning with his back against the log and was observing the conversation.

"Come on, it isn't that bad." Gidgit looked at Rev expectantly.

"Plus it actually works." Shift added, hoping to convince Rev. Rev sighed, defeated under more pestering from Trill and Gidgit. He pulled out a ration cube and bit into it will his eyes closed. Shift stared in fascination as the face of his brother didn't change into suppressed revulsion like it usually did.

"Is that what my face looked like?" Shift asked Trill. Trill nodded. They continued to watch Rev finish his bite of the ration cube. Rev licked his lips and looked at Shift.

"My face is your face, _vod_." Rev said jokingly to Shift, and they chuckled.

"Good point." Shift laughed.

"What did you imagine the ration cube tasted like?" Gidgit was practically hopping in place he was so excited to know.

"Uh, a sweet-sand cookie?" He saw his brothers around him waiting for him to exaggerate on what a cookie was. "It is like a flat cake, and it has sugar on top of it. Hence the name 'sweet-sand', because the sugar crystals looked like sand." Rev held his hands up, making a circle with his fingers, indicating the size of the cookie.

"I want to try one." Gidgit decided. "Maybe we can ask for desserts for our reward if we get awarded medals for this mission." Gidgit's mouth watered at all the different possibilities of treats they could receive. A balled up ration cube wrapper hit his head and jerked Gidgit out of his dreams.

"Stop dreaming, we are on the job." The corner of Rev's mouth twitched up in the barest hint of a smile, which told Gidgit that he would also love to taste the luxuries they dreamed about but most likely would never receive. At the mention of the mission, Shift jerked his helmet back on and checked the happenings on the wall. Nothing had changed too much.

The sun was barely just starting to set, and if Shift had to guess when there was a change of guard, he would say soon. Even the droids swapped out their day guards with night guards. It was common sense, not that the battle droids possessed any, but still. Dosuun's sun lowered in the sky, tinting the clones' surroundings deep hues of yellow and orange. Trill pointed out movement at the top of the wall. Shift turned on the video recorder in his helmet.

The replacement B1 battle droids and B2 super battle droids were filling along the barrier top. Each droid took the spot of another droid of its model type. The day guard battle droids marched off along the top of the wall, presumably towards stairs or steps down to ground level. Two B1 battle droids broke off from the main group and headed to the nearest notch along the barrier top.

The battle droids flicked an unseen switch and a swinging spot lamp flooded the clearing surrounding the wall. The two tinnies continued on to the next notch and repeated the process until they were out of sight. The swinging lights covered most of the ground. Most didn't mean all, and the clones could deal with most. They would somehow find a way to get over the wall and complete the first half of the mission. All Flash Squad needed was a chance. The four brothers would take it and make it, or die trying.

After all the sweeping spot lights were turned on, Shift saved the video to his helmet data for later study. Right now, they had to figure out watchman shifts for the rest of the night. The group of clones already knew that they would be sneaking over the wall under the cover of darkness. They somehow needed to exploit the changing of the guard and the powering on of the swinging lamps. Shift forwarded his helmet video to each of his brothers, so they could review it and form a plan to share in the morning while they were on watch duty.

"I don't want to watch first. I think I should get to sleep because I showed you the ration cube trick." Trill still felt pleased with himself for teaching his squad mates something new. Shift shrugged, he didn't have a problem with that. A light snore made the clones look over at Gidgit.

The tired clone had fallen asleep up against a tree and behind the bush, softly snoring away. Shift smiled and propped up Gidgit's head before sliding Gidgit's helmet on it, the helmet would be more comfortable that the bark of the tree for a pillow. He then reached over and searched through Gidgit's pack and retrieved a blanket. Shift lifted and spread the blanket over most of the snoozing clone. He glanced at Rev, who also was beginning to show signs of exhaustion.

"I'll take the first shift. You guys get your beauty sleep. Besides, I'm already coming up with a plan to ascend that wall." Rev nodded and said something about how he would take guard duty after Shift. He told Shift to wake him up in a few hours, before he reclined back against the log. Trill made a small sleeping space for himself on the ground, clearing away the sharp sticks. Trill gave a huge yawn then pulled on his bucket and curling up on the dirt.

"Night, Shift." Trill mumbled, pulling up his blanket and already drifting off into sleep. Soon Rev was asleep too, and Shift was the only one awake. He flicked on the night vision setting for his helmet and set it to flash when something moved or disturbed the quiet calm peace of the night.

Shift turned on the helmet video and began searching it for any details or errors the battle droids had made that might help the group of clones. Shift hadn't even watched it ten times before he saw a crucial error that would be their golden ticket to get over the wall. Shift grinned to himself, forming a plan in his head. The replacing of the guard and the turning on of the spotlights happened at around the same time. There were a few minutes of time in between the sunset and the switching of the droid guards. That meant it would be dark for only a few minutes before the droids switched to night guards, guards that most likely have night vision. And a few minutes was all they needed.

They would do, or die.

_DOT: I'd like to thank everyone who reviewed: _**kitten**_, _**Liontalon**_,_** laloga **_(I'm going to read your updates next, I promise!), and _**SWdeathlyhalows**_!_

_Internet cookies for whoever guessed: "Rex, what the heck are you doing!" XD_


	11. Chapter 11

_DOT: I'm sick so I apologize for any errors that may have occurred when I didn't read this chapter. And the general crappyness of its contents._

**Chapter 11**

Shift woke in the late morning, which was much later than the rising time at Kamino. He yawned and blinked his eyes clear of sleep before taking off his helmet and rubbing them. He groaned, still feeling a little tired and sore. Shift made a mental note to take a stim before the clones attempted getting over the wall.

"Good morning sunshine!" Trill sang obnoxiously in his ear. Shift swatted at his brother and mumbled something along the lines of 'shut up'. Trill made a face back at him. "Well _someone's_ not a morning person."

"Be quiet." Shift said grouchily. He wasn't, and had never, been a morning clone. The gene must have skipped over him. Trill must have been thinking something along the same line because of his facial expression. "You're such a _di'kut_ in the mornings." Shift tossed a small stone at Trill's helmet. It landed on target and bounced off it.

"What have I done? You are the complain-y one." Trill's tone was indignant. But Shift didn't care, because as stated before, he wasn't a morning person. Shift sat up and ignored Trill, and stretched out his muscles hoping to wake himself up a little bit. The tips of his fingers touched someone and Shift looked over to see what it was. It was Gidgit, still soundly sleeping away after his watch.

"How come you didn't wake him up too?" Shift pointed to the sleeping form of Gidgit.

"For one thing, I didn't wake you up. You were already awake. If I didn't wake you up, why would I wake Gidgit up?" Shift's head spun, it was too much logic for his brain to handle after just waking up.

"That's a minor detail." Shift said after a while. He suddenly realized that his gruff brother was missing. "Hey, what happened to Rev?

"Oh, when he woke me up for my watch shift he said he had some scouting to do." Trill said, scratching his arm while worrying that he might get in trouble. "He had an 'ah-ha' moment and he also said something about looking for power lines."

"Do you think he'll have some new information for us when he comes back?" Shift stifled a yawn, putting a hand over his mouth when it escaped.

"Probably, there's no other reason why he's been gone this long."

"Unless he got shot by the tinnies." Shift muttered darkly. It was silent for a few seconds. Gidgit rolled over in his sleep.

"He would com us if he needed help." Trill's words were ment to be reassuring, but he had hesitated before he said them and that made all the difference. You can never lie to your brother. Trill knew this and he sat down next to Shift, offering brotherly comfort. Both of them waited, watching the forest and observing the wall. Trill told him what he had seen on his shift.

"The battle droids mostly pace back and force along the top of the wall. The super battle droids are stationed at the corners, which is why there aren't as many." Trill sent the helmet video of his watch to Shift's HUD. "The lights were turned off already when I got up. So I'm assuming that they were powered down during Rev's shift."

"Nothing much happened on my watch either. There was plenty of time for me to come up with a plan, but I'd like to explain it when everyone is awake." Shift put on his helmet and skimmed Trill's video before sending him his. "You think we should wake Gidgit up now?"

"I don't think we need to until Rev comes back." Trill leaned forward to look past Shift at Gidgit, who was still slumbering away, oblivious to his surroundings. Shift's stomach growled and Shift smiled, embarrassed.

He pulled out a ration cube and began to eat it, thinking of burrfruit. Shift remembered how Gidgit had tried jogan fruit before and Shift made a mental note to try some if he lived through this ordeal. They could attempt to get both fruits and compare them later. Shift's thoughts trailed along the line of different foods that his brothers had spoke of, trying to imagine what each tasted like.

His mind wandered to what the sweetest thing Sergeant Kies might have had. Shift thought of all the foods he had probably had from being in different cultures during battle. Shift could picture the awkward face Kies might have made if he was offered a revolting food item. He mentally chuckled a little at the image he came up with. Then he remembered Sergeant Kies was dead, and sobered up a little. He didn't say remembrance for the clone, but he acknowledged the fact that Flash Squad had lost a brother.

Shift and Trill waited in silence for Rev to return. Shift hoped his brother would return. They had no information on his status, the two clones didn't want to call him in case the Separatists picked up on the signal and traced it. Right now, Shift didn't care if Rev returned from his scouting with any clues on how to help the group get over the barrier; he just wanted his brother back. Every passing minute made the odds greater that Rev had been caught and wouldn't be returning. Ever. Shift busied himself with smoothing out the finer details in his plan. He watched the guard swapping video over and over again, until he felt that if he closed his eyes then he would still see the droids marching.

There was a rustling of the bushes and Trill and Shift immediately snatched their weapons up and moved to cover the sleeping figure of Gidgit. They aimed at the quivering bushes and Shift put his hand on Gidgit's shoulder, ready to wake him if necessary. There could be the chance that it was Rev. It was. The form of white armor with black stripes emerged from the foliage.

"Calm down, _vode_. It's just me." At the sound of Rev's voice Trill and Shift relaxed and put their deeces down again.

"Rev!" Trill hugged his brother and slapped him on the back. "We were just starting to worry about you." Shift clasped Rev's forearm, Mando style, by way of greeting him.

"What were you doing out in the forest for so long?" Shift asked, inviting Rev to tell them what he had found.

"I have some really good information, but I think we should wake Gidgit up. He needs to hear this too." Rev glanced over to where their brother rested. Shift walked over to Gidgit and lightly shook him awake. Gidgit seemed pretty unfocused until he got some food in his stomach. Then his brain started to wake up and they all waited for Rev to tell where he had been.

"You know how there are the swinging spot lamps on top of the wall?" All the clones nodded. "Well, I thought to myself, 'Where is the power to run those coming from?' So while I was on my watch, I debated all the different ways the droids could be supplying energy to the lights. I narrowed it down to two main ideas, either there was an extremely large generator inside or they had solar panels somewhere outside the base." Shift leaned forward, interested to hear what Rev had to say. "After my watch ended I went to look for some sort of power cords or panels."

"Did you find them?" Gidgit asked.

"I did." Rev smiled, there had been very low chances he would find something but he used logic and figured it out.

"How?" Trill was bewildered, finding the power source was like trying to find a needle in a hay stack. Nearly impossible.

"I guessed the droids were supplying the lights with solar energy because of the way the spot lamps had faded out a few minutes before sunrise. They had run out of energy. Then I knew that the panels had to be placed somewhere where they would receive a lot of sunlight with nothing to obstruct the rays, which would be a large clearing of some sort." Rev tapped the navigator on his wrist. "I looked at the geographical area around the communications base on this and found a nearby area that was cleared. That was when my shift ended and I woke Trill up." Rev turned his head toward Trill. "I went to the location and there the panels were. It was like finding credits in a nuna nest."

"That's great! Do you think we will be able to sabotage them?" Shift was already linking Rev's information into his plan. "Like make them turn on later than normal?"

"I could do better than that. If we tinker around with the mechanics think we could disable them completely." Rev glanced at Shift. "Do you have a plan?"

"Yes, I do. Your information fits in perfectly with it. We are going to ascend the wall before the sun rises, when the lights fade. Only, we're going to make them go out earlier than normal by covering those solar panels for a while, that way we have more time."

"Why not just destroy the panels completely and go in at dusk?" Trill was confused.

"Because we don't want to alert them of anything unusual. The lights going out a little earlier isn't an uncommon occurrence, animals and downed trees or plants could block the light and cause the lamps to turn off earlier than normal." Trill nodded, and felt pleased with the answer. "We use our grappling cables in the cover of the extra darkness and sneak over the wall. We take out any droids on the top of the wall that try and stop us. The battle droids will not be as fueled up because they have been watching the wall all night long, so they should go down easier."

"Bravo, that's a great plan." Gidgit clapped and smiled at his brother.

"What happens after we get over the wall? Then we still have to take over the entire base." Trill wasn't one hundred percent sold on the plan yet.

"That's the thing about getting in early. If we don't cause too much of a disturbance, the replacement tinnies will still be in their barracks. If they are in the enclosed space, we toss in a grenade and 'ka-boom', they're scrap metal." Shift stroked his chin. "I'm thinking that we sprint for the command center, and take out any battle droids that get in our path. Once we are up in the center, then we can disable all the droids from the monitors in the room. If a droid somehow makes it through the shut down, we blast it. Plus the sun will have risen by then, so we will be able to see the oncoming battle droids easier."

"I like this plan. The only problem is that we can't take in our gear packs with us." Rev motioned toward the places where the bags lay on the ground. "We are going to need the ammunition and ordinance."

"I say we bury the packs. Load up as much ammo as we can handle, then bury the bags so we can retrieve them for when we take the neighboring Separatist camp later." Gidgit offered.

"That makes sense. Should we cover the solar panels now?" Rev stood, stretching. Shift nodded. "Who wants to come with me to the clearing?" Gidgit lifted his hand.

"I'll go, I'm good with electronics." Shift and Trill nodded. "Want to head out now?"

"Sure, it's a bit of a walk." Gidgit grabbed his datapad and a few tools from his back pack. He turned to Rev, and gestured for him to lead the way. Rev walked through the bushes, and Gidgit followed. "See you later guys!" Gidgit waved to Shift and Trill.

Gidgit jogged the short distance and walked next Rev. They moved mostly in silence through the forest. Rev occasionally consulted his navigator and pointed to the direction they were supposed to be heading in. They kept adjusting their course, moving around a safe distance from the communications base. After a while, Rev motioned for Gidgit to stay low.

"We are nearing the clearing. Stay low, I'm not sure if they have cameras around here or not." The two brothers shifted along at a crouch now, staying below the height of the shrubs. They stopped right before the end of the treeline and looked at the flat expanse of grass in front of them.

In the middle of the grass rested a huge block of solar panels, each spread a small distance from the next. The panels were organized in rows. They consisted of flat black tablets that collect the light of the sun and turned it into solar energy.

"We need to figure out the amount of energy it collects during the day and how long that fuels it." Gidgit said consulting his datapad.

"Well, Shift took the first watch right before we all went to bed. The lights went off during my watch." Rev consulted his helmet video, and took the datapad from Gidgit and typed in the number of hours the collected energy powered the spot lamps. "I took the liberty to check how many swing lights there were when I was walking around earlier." He put that number into the datapad also.

"So now we just have to figure out how much light these panels collect during the day." Gidgit looked at the clearing. "We are going to have to break cover."

"Let's check for cameras first." Rev and Gidgit swept the clearing with there helmets, searching for hidden devices. "I have nothing. It should be safe."

"Me too. Let's get the readouts on that panel." Gidgit pointed to the panel closest to the forest, in case they were caught and needed an easy escape route. "It might have an anti-tampering bug in it, so we're going to have to be careful." Gidgit slowed edged out into the flat grassy clearing. As soon as he seemed sure that no alarms were going to go off, he waved his hand for Rev to join him. They sprinted in a crouch the rest of the way to the panel.

Gidgit hesitantly lifted the panel up a little bit. Nothing happened and he breathed a sigh of relief. Rev grabbed the solar panel and lifted it straight up, so that it was still in full sunlight, not wanting to compromise the data. Gidgit removed his tools and began to dismantle a section of metal off the panel's bottom. Gidgit worked as quickly as he could and soon he had the information screen underneath the panel giving him the necessary data for them.

"Got it. Just give me a few minutes to reassemble the bottom together again." Gidgit gave Rev a thumbs up. Rev felt his arm muscles starting to tremble. "Okay, we're good. Put it back on the ground." Gidgit moved out from under the panel and Rev lowered the panel down onto the grass. He squared the corners with the others in its row and column. The panel appeared like it had never been moved. The two clones sprinted swiftly back into the safety of the trees.

"We got the data." Rev watched as Gidgit solved the equation for how long they would need to cover the panels for a few extra minutes of darkness. He typed away at the datapad, plugging in the numbers. "Here we go, we need to cover the panel for this amount of time." Gidgit tapped the number at the bottom of the datapad's screen.

"Let's cover them with leaves." Rev suggested pointing at one of the types of shorter trees that grew long large leaves of its branches. "Those ones should cover each panel nicely." Gidgit nodded and both the troopers moved next to the tree. "Climb on my shoulders and start pulling the leaves down." Rev squatted and Gidgit sat on his shoulders.

Gidgit reached up and grabbed the nearest leaf, breaking it off the branch with a sharp tear. The leaves had a slightly rubbery texture and were a pale pink color. It was one of the types of trees that didn't have bright green leaves. They were wide and heart shaped. Gidgit dropped the leaves he pulled off into a neat pile on the ground. When he had removed enough leaves to cover the solar panels, Rev let Gidgit off his shoulders.

"You can cover those solar panels and I'll get the rest." Gidgit separated the stack and handed half of it to Rev. The two clones moved back into the clearing in a crouch, holding their respective leaves. Gidgit sprinted next to the nearest solar panel and spread a leaf over it. He turned to the next one and repeated the process, making sure to cover the majority of the panel. After Gidgit finished his stack of pink leaves, he looked over at Rev. He was just laying down the last leaf.

They sprinted back to the cover of the foliage and settled in for the wait. They passed the time by talking to each other about what they each thought they might encounter in the droid communication base. Both Rev and Gidgit agreed that Shift's plan to get over the wall was brilliant. They also both thought that the command center would be in a tower near the center of the base. Most of the Separatist bases had the place of power located in the center of the area and in a tower. Soon the time was up and they had to return into the flat expanse of land to retrieve the leaves.

After taking the leaves off of the solar panels, the two brothers scattered the heart shaped vegetation around the area, as not to draw to much attention if the battle droids inspected the location.

"Time to go." Rev said and he and Gidgit headed back toward the clones' makeshift encampment. The trek back felt considerably longer, and Gidgit felt antsy. He was worried that the droids would somehow figure out what they had done and ambush them. He scolded himself. If the battle droids wanted to kill them, they would have already done so when the clones were waiting for the right time to take the leaves off.

Gidgit and Rev walked back into camp and were greet first by being aimed at by Trill's and Shift's deeces, then the brothers themselves after they realized who they were.

"You knew we would be back this time. What is with the guns?" Rev asked, pointing to the offending object.

"You can never be too careful." Trill put his blaster back on the ground beside him. He then stood up and clasped Rev's forearm. "It's getting boring around here. There's not much to do. Shift and I went through the gear bags and took out what we think we are going to need for the battle." Gidgit nodded, accepting the reason for why most of their stuff was strewn out on the ground.

"We decided on taking the extra deece ammunition and the EMP grenades for sure. Oh, and the med kits. Everything else you can go over with us and help choose." Shift announced.

A great argument on what they might need ensued. In the end though, the clones decided to take the extra food, detonators and electrobinoculars with them. They decided to leave the hair dye, blankets and other unnecessary things behind. Gidgit insisted on taking his tools and datapad with him though. At first, Shift had tried to persuade him not to, but now he realized they might come in handy for reconfiguring and hacking items like the monitors in the command center. The four clones packed up their gear and buried the back packs under a bush, marking the place on their navigators.

The sun was beginning to set and it wouldn't be long now until the dangerous part of their mission got underway. Shift reminded his brothers that they should all take a stim to boost their energy before they tried to ascend the wall, and to jump over the motion detectors. They had all agreed and now were settling in to wait for the light of the swinging spot lamps to fade out. Trill was taking a nap and Gidgit was on his datapad. Rev just sat and stared at the ground.

Shift watched as the lamps swing back and forth. Soon each pass was dimmer, and dimmer, and dimmer and the light of the spot lamps powered out completely.

It was nearly pitch black, Shift noted. Then it was time to go.

_DOT: Long chapter is long. Not. Anyways, I'd like to thank _**SWdeathlyhalows **_and_** laloga** _for reviewing!_

_Anyone who put me on author alert, I'd like to say the next chapter for Fallen is being worked on._


	12. Chapter 12

**The Valiance: Chapter 12**

"Go go go!" Shift yelled, sprinting for the wall. His heart jumped a little when he left the cover of the trees, he hoped the droids did not have night vision. He lept over one of the motion detector lines. They didn't fire, so Shift took that as a good sign. His feet pounded on the ground as he crossed the clearing, leaping over yet another motion detector. The wall was only a few feet away now. He jumped over the last motion detector then turned and slammed his back to the wall, his brothers were right behind him.

"Cables." Trill said. They all pulled their deeces out and pointed them up at the top of the wall. Shift squeezed the trigger and the cable shot out of his gun. It shot upward and caught itself on the edge of the wall. Shift tugged on it to make sure it wouldn't come loose.

He grabbed onto the cable and began to pull himself up, arm length by arm length. This was the tedious part. They had to make it to the top of the wall in only a few minutes without any droids seeing them. Shift's arm muscles started to protest, but he pushed himself onward. There was no turning back now. Shift looked over at his brothers; Gidgit was on the left, and Trill and Rev on his left.

Trill made it to the top first, he had stopped and was hanging just below the top of the stone barrier. He didn't want to be seen by the battle droids until all his brothers were in a good position to jump over the top of the wall. Shift lifted himself up another arm length and another until he was next to Trill. They waited until Gidgit and Rev were next to them too.

"Ready?" Shift asked, estimating they had only a few more minutes of darkness left.

"It's now or never." Rev answered and lifted himself over the top of the wall. Shift followed and detached his cable from the wall, quickly switching his deece back to power packs.

"Hey, you're not supposed to be here!" The mechanical voice of a B1 battle droid announced.

"They're clones! Get them!" Another said. Bolts immediately ripped through the air towards the clones. Shift aimed his blaster at a tan form of a B1 and shot it. The droid fell to the deck with a thud. Shift ducked under a red hot laser bolt that passed next to his shoulder.

"Die Republic dogs!"

"I think we've worn out our welcome. Does anyone see any stairs?" Gidgit said in between volleys of shots. Shift covered Trill while he looked for some. All the droids on their section along the top of the wall was now firing at them.

"Over there!" Trill pointed at a flight of stairs near the corner of the wall.

"Just fan-_kriffing_-tastic. They couldn't have made like an turbolift or something not surrounded by droids?" Rev cursed.

"Let's break for it. I don't want to be up here much longer." Shift said, downing another droid in the oncoming hoard. There were too many of them to face straight on. Rev turned and jogged for the stairs, shooting at any droid in his path. Gidgit was behind him; slightly off center so he wouldn't accidently shoot Rev. Both Shift and Trill were facing backwards in the same position.

A shot came from the ground and Trill cursed as it nearly singed his shoulder. He turned and faced the lower level of the communication base, aiming at the droids beginning to congregate there. They gradually made their way to the stairs, not as fast as Shift or another of the other clones would have liked though. The four troopers pounded down the stairs and stopped at the bottom.

"Cover me!" Trill yelled. Shift moved so he could aim at the battle droids that were firing on Trill. Meanwhile, Trill had seen the watch guard droid barracks. He pulled out an grenade and tossed it in the doorway.

"Bye bye!" He waved at the droids inside as they all moved their ocular pieces to look at the sphere in their midst.

"What?" One of the B1s responded, but Trill had already muscled the heavy door shut and was turning the crank to lock it closed. Gidgit slung his gun over his shoulder and helped Trill turn the wheel.

"Let's get out of here, fast." Gidgit suggested. "I don't want to be around when this blows."

"There's the command tower!" Shift pointed to the tall circular building in the center of the base.

"That's convenient." Rev grumbled as he looked as the tall tower that was impossible not to notice. They all sprinted in that direction, firing at the oncoming battle droids. Shift felt and heard the boom of the guard droid barracks exploding. The earth beneath his feet shuddered and small chunks of duracrete rained down unto his helmeted head. Shift kept running, but some of the tinnies paused and looked at the ruined building.

They were so close to the tower now. It loomed over them, a truly menacing structure. It was guaranteed that there would be many floors in the building until they reached the command center, which would be located at the top. They all put their backs to the door and Trill pressed the button to open it, mashing it several more times when it didn't open fast enough for his tastes. They moved inside and Rev shot the control panel, sealing the door closed.

Shift was already turned around and firing on the droids in the lobby. Most of them went down easily; they hadn't been expecting the clones to make it that far into the base. Gidgit took care of the right side, and Shift scraped the right.

"Clear. Let's go." Shift announced when all the battle droids were lying on the floor, not showing signs of getting up anytime soon. The four clones ran into the turbolift and Rev reached over and pressed the button for the top floor. It blinked red and didn't respond to Rev pushing the button again.

"It appears that we need a special keycard for access to the top floor." Rev said, examining the keycard slot next to the button.

Gidgit groaned and they all moved out back into the lobby to look for a key card. Trill, Rev and Shift all checked the downed droids that were lying on the floor. Gidgit moved behind the check in desk and began shuffling through all the papers. One of the drawers was locked and Gidgit picked the lock with his vibroblade. Inside the drawer was a stack of keycards for all the different access slots in the building.

"I've got it." Gidgit moved back into the turbolift and slid the first keycard into the slot. The access button blinked red. Gidgit cursed and tried the next card, methodically moving through the stack.

"Isn't there one labeled 'command center' or something?" Trill peered over Gidgit's shoulder as he tossed incorrect card after incorrect card on the floor.

"If there was, I wouldn't be doing this." Gidgit flipped a card up for Trill's eyes to see. "All of them are in numbers that presumably the droids can read." He kept sliding keycards into the slot. Gidgit glanced at the next card. "This one looks promising." It was a dull bronze color, slightly brighter than the others. He put it into the slot and they all held their breath. The button blinked green and the turbolift doors closed. The radio of the turbolift crackled to life.

"Finally." Trill said. They all stood against the walls of the turbolift and waited, watching the floor level change to one number up. A shot startled Shift and he looked at the now fried radio. "What? I hate turbolift music." Trill shrugged. The turbolift continued up, slowly passing each floor number.

Finally, it reached the top. Shift and his brothers tensed and raised their deeces as the turbolift slowed to a stop and the doors creaked open to the command center. The droids all turned from their work stations and began firing at the four clones.

"Try not to fry the computers." Rev warned. "We're going to need them later." Shift moved his aim lower towards the battle droids' feet where he wouldn't accidently destroy any electronics. They efficiently took out the lines of B1 droids while moving up the main isle. Gidgit rushed up the aisle and pointed the muzzle of his blaster at the head of a tactical droid. The tactical droid clubbed Gidgit on the head with a blaster it had grabbed from a nearby comrade. Gidgit sunk to the ground and laid there. Shift's stomach jumped into his mouth. He ran over to the droid and tackled it for all he was worth.

"You_ di'kut_! You can't get away with hurting my brother." Shift growled wrestling the blaster away from the tactical droid. The t-series droids let out a disconcerting laugh.

"Ha-ha ha ha-ha. You clones cannot take over this entire planet. The possibility of that occurring is 857 to one." The mouthpiece of the droid blinked.

"If you factor in the general known as Anakin Skywalker, I think our chances improve greatly." Shift smirked and grabbed the sides of the flat head of the tactical droid. He tore it off with one swift wrench of his arms.

"Noooooo….." The tactical droid's voice faded out as the power stopped transmitting. Gidgit groaned from his place on the ground, rolling over onto his side. Trill ran over to his brother and helped him stand up, Gidgit holding his head all the while. Rev finished disposing of all the battle droids that lay on the ground then went to Gidgit also. He removed Gidgit's helmet and began inspecting the damage.

"You might get one nasty bruise from that, _vod_." Rev pulled out his bacta spray and squirted the top of Gidgit's head.

"Ugh, that tactical tinnie was more aggressive than most." Gidgit returned his head to his hands after Rev finished.

"I didn't know they could do that either. I wonder if it was deficient." Trill looked at the remains of the droid's body. Shift stood and placed the head on the desk next to him.

"I hope it isn't a new skill they are teaching the tacticals, otherwise the Grand Army's going to be in a whole load of _osik_. That would make it a lot harder to grab the head and get the information. They would have to worry about not destroying the droids when it fought them." Gidgit rubbed his head; the pain was beginning to recede.

"Let's not slack off now. We still have to hack into the mainframe and shut all the droids down." Rev spoke while powering up one of the nearest computers. The screen flipped on and asked for a pass code. Gidgit slipped beside him and started to dismantle part of the hard drive. The clones watched as he pulled out a small square and plugged it into a small port that had been exposed. The screen on the computer flipped up with a rolling window of numbers. Several of the numbers were repeated and highlighted. Gigit typed them into the box and the computer went to the main screen.

"We are in the computer now. We just have to find the emergency shutdown order and broadcast it to all the battle droid units." Gidgit took the mouse and began opening and scrolling through several folders. Eventually he found a folder that asked him for an access code and once again the rolling window of numbers popped up and gave him the password. Several minutes later, Gidgit made a noise.

"Did you find it?" Trill asked excitedly.

"No, the order should be in this folder," He pointed to a file on the computer's screen. "But it won't let me open it. The hacking window isn't popping up." He clicked on the folder again, but nothing happened. "I think the password might be on a different computer." He moved to a desktop on the other side of the room and proceeded to hack into it. The only change was this time he was looking for a file full of passwords. "Here, try this one." Gidgit listed out a stream of numbers and letters which Shift typed into the access bar. It flashed incorrect.

"No, that's not it." Shift called to him. Gidgit responded with another set of numbers. Shift shook his head as the code box flashed incorrect again.

"How about this one?" Gidgit said another pattern of numerals. The box flashed correct and Shift was into the file folder.

"We're in. Which file is it?" Shift waved Gidgit over. Gidgit grabbed the mouse and double clicked on the folder which held three access code boxes. Thankfully, the window of numbers pooped up and Gidgit picked out the three different passwords.

"Everyone ready?" Gidgit asked, looking at his brothers. They all nodded. Gidgit moved the mouse and clicked the file. The public address system crackled on and a mechanical voice sounded over it.

"Emergency Order: Shutdown has been activated. Please remain calm." The mechanical voice broadcasted. Shift and his brothers rushed to the window and watched as all the B1 battle droids and B2 super battle droids powered down. Their mechanical bodies went limp. Trill gave a whoop of happiness.

"We did it!" He yelled, congratulating Gidgit on his hacking skills. He slapped Rev on the back and high-fived Shift. "Good job, _vode_." Shift smiled and joined in the small victory bliss feeling. They had taken the droid communication base, and that was a great reason to celebrate.

But the voice in the back of his mind whispered that they still had to take the droid camp too.

_DOT: Please review?_


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